Sugar, Snails, and Some Other Stuff
by R.L. Sisters
Summary: <html><head></head>Ben, the oldest of all fourteen siblings and cousins, joins his family on a cross-country trek. But, when they arrive in Nowhere, Kansas, things get a little more...interesting. This is the first of the Second Generation Series, about the PPG's children.</html>
1. Chapter 1

"The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad."

-Psalms 97:1

Chapter 1

"_MOM_!" Bell shrieked in her girlish way. "Tell Beau to stop pulling my HAIR!"

"Beau, leave your sister alone," My mother responded impatiently. Her voice was sharp with frustration.

"I'm not touching her hair," Beau whined desperately. Although it was evident he was lying, considering the disheveled state of my sister's hair. Yup, backseat drama…happens all the time.

"I didn't say you were touching it…I said you were PULLING it!"

"Bell, calm down. Beau, stop messing with your sister," came My mother's voice, again. Her patience was obviously wearing thin. I think at that point I could hear her teeth grinding. I know it sounds sad…but that's pretty normal around here, if you know what I mean.

"But I'm not even _near_ her!"

"Beau!" My father shouted. Great, it's never pretty when he gets involved. "If you don't leave your sister alone, I'll whack you upside the head until your ears ring!"

"Butch," my Mom began jadedly. She gave him a disapproving look while rubbing her temple. My father looked at her and shrugged his shoulders.

"Hush! I'm trying to text," Bari cried.

"Why do you need people to be quiet for you to text?" my Dad said a little calmer.

"I don't know; I just want everyone to shut up!" Bari started.

Hey, 'sup? My name's Ben. Yeah, you guessed it. This is my family. Sounds great so far, huh? You have Mom and Dad in the front, the first two kids in the second row, and the youngest in the very back. Apparently, I'm the oldest, fifteen to be exact. On the other side of the car next to me is Bari. She's the second oldest at the fabulous age of fourteen. In the back is Beauregard – Beau for short. He's eight if you haven't already guessed, and the youngest of all is Bell. She's the extremely adorable and bratty six year old who was miserably forced to sit in the back with her loving bro.

Here are a few special characteristics about my nuclear family. First of all, we all have black hair. No really, all of us. Black hair. That's it. It makes me feel so special. Second feature: we all have green eyes. Dark green, light green, whatever. You call the shots. I myself have dark green eyes, along with my sister Bell. Beau and Bari have light green eyes.

Ok, here are the negative traits of our family: our eyes take up half our head. Also, we lack fingers. Yes, we have no fingers…at least it appears that way. Don't ask me how I hold a pencil. Don't ask me how I blow my nose. Don't ask me how Beau picks his nose. Don't ask me how I eat pretzels. It's very complicated. Don't question the system! (Because I don't know how it works.) All I know is that it makes me feel like a stupid dress-up doll! I mean seriously. I don't fit in with society.

Now, concerning the eye-thing: it's cute when you're like…three! I'll even go so far as to say eight or something. Fifteen? No. Not so much. I'm pretty ashamed of them. Actually, my eyes are the main reason why I let my bangs grow out: so they'd cover the stupid things! My hair is long enough to cover half my ears, but no longer. My mother is sort of picky about that. Beau's hair is pretty normal for an eight-year-old. The only distinguishable feature is the cowlick poking out of his head. Bari's hair is medium long and curls at the end. Bell's hair is short, but we put them in pigtails most of the time to keep it out of her face.

"Bari, watch the attitude." My mother leaned over her seat this time to face her unruly daughter. You probably would know my Mom better as Buttercup. She used to be a Powerpuff Girl, along with her two sisters Bubbles and Blossom. Nowadays, they spend their time either fighting crime out in the streets somewhere, or raising children at home.

Ask any of them and I'm sure the response will be the same: being a housewife, and serving the community by fighting monsters is not an easy task. In fact, they'd probably advise against it. However, the monsters at this time are becoming critically endangered. I'm not quite sure why. I know it has something to do with an island. I also know it had something to do with the Professor. However, I don't know for sure, mostly because nobody would tell me. Nobody really tells me anything. I'm not allowed to help and/or terrorize the world. It doesn't really make much sense considering my parents did it when they were like, what? Six?

Here is a little background on Professor Utoniam: A while ago, he "created" My mother and two aunts in his lab-thingy-place. Yep, you guessed it: sugar, spice, and everything nice were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girls. Go figure. But during the process, a little accident occurred, thanks to the work of an underpaid monkey and Chemical X. So, after a few dramatic changes (which ironically included some superpowers) the Powerpuff Girls were born! So, what about my Dad? Well, that's a different story. He was made from snails, body hair, and a doggy tail in a radioactive toilet. Don't ask. It's a long story.

Here, this might clear things up a little better: My father and his two brothers are best known as the Rowdyruff Boys: Boomer, Brick and Butch (Butch is my Dad). They were created by a certain green monkey who wanted to get revenge on the girls. As you can imagine…these guys didn't get along too well. In fact, they didn't get along at all. As time went on, they ironically got married and each had four to five kids. How does this happen you might ask? Now _that's_ a complicated story. I might clarify on it later. Isn't it _great?_ We're all exactly like our parents. It makes me tear up sometimes. (I strongly advise sarcasm.)

Well, whatever. All I know is that the monster scarcity thing gave us some time to spend on vacation. You wouldn't think that would be too bad, right? Just three super-powered siblings and two parents traveling cross-country to Arizona. That's not too bad, huh? It might even be…fun?

I guess it would be…if all ten of your cousins weren't tagging along.

Yeah, sadly my aunts and uncles had the same bright idea. Thankfully, my relatives have enough common sense to drive in separate cars. So, why aren't we flying you might ask? Well, that's a good question. All of us have the ability; there are just a few minor problems:

One of my little cousins just happens to be a two-year-old. Carrying him the whole way would be sort of…yeah, difficult

Cross-country is pretty far…and frequent stops would need to be made. With fourteen kids in all, we want to keep stops to a minimal.

Weather conditions are unpredictable, and so are hotel rooms…duh!

Somebody insisted that driving to our destination would be more of an _adventure_. Whatever that means… (And, if you haven't guessed, I have a dumb blonde in the family….actually I have a couple dumb blondes in my family.)

Hey, I wasn't lying when I said I was the oldest. Yeah it's true. All ten of my cousins are younger then me. I guess it's not so bad…sometimes. It can be fun, except for the fact that all of them live within biking distance from my house. Yippy.

Here are all of us in order: me, Beth, Bari, Brooke, Brett, Blythe, Birch, Bridgett, Beau, Bruno, Bell, Blazer, Belinda, and Boomer Jr. We just call Boomer Jr. Junior for short (who happens to be the two year old I was talking about earlier). What's with the "B's?" Consider it an old family tradition. I say that because I really have no idea why.

So in summary, I'm a freak. I come from a family of freaks. My mother came out of a chemical experiment, and my father exploded from a toilet. We have huge eyes, no fingers, super-powers; we're made up of sugar and snails for crying out loud! My whole family is made up of weirdoes! I don't fit in with the public. I mean face it! We're freaky bug-eyed weirdo people who break everything and are freaky! (I'm not mentally unstable by the way, I'm just ranting.) Well, I never tell anyone this, because nobody is really all that upset about it except for me. Guess I should be thankful. I mean, I can fly. That's a benefit right? Or does it just make me more of a freak? I'll leave that for you to decide.

Things began to quiet down a little bit. I crossed my arms and rested my chin on top of them. I starred out the window blankly hoping that maybe I could spare some of my sanity…at least the little bit I had left. All my hopes and dreams diminished when I heard those dreadful words:

"Hey Dad…Dad…Dad…Dad." Beau was getting restless…again.

"Yes son," My father answered reluctantly.

"Guess what?"

"What?"

"I wrote a song. Do you wanna hear it? Do yah? Do yah, Dad?"

"Ok, just one."

"Ok, ok:

Twinkle, twinkle, little frog.

How I wonder where your mustache is.

Uppa buppa spaghetti friend,

I like cheese, and bugs named Fred.

Twinkle, twinkle little bumble bee,

How I wonder why you're dumb.

I wrote it myself, Dad!"

"That's great, Beau."

"You wanna hear another one?"

"I'm trying to drive, son. Why don't you tell me later?"

"What did you say?"

"He said he doesn't want to hear another one of your stupid songs!" Bell screamed.

"Hey, I wasn't talking to you, Mrs. Grumpy Pants!" Beau starred straight ahead of him towards the driver. "Ok. Later then?"

"Yeah, sure later."

A few minutes went by. I thought that maybe I could salvage some of the peace left in the car. That failed too:

"Hey Dad!...Dad,"

"Yes, Beau,"

"I'm hungry!" His eyes widened innocently. I sighed and slammed my face against my arms.

"You just ate breakfast."

"But that was like…30 minutes ago! And I'm still hungry."

"Honey, you're going to have to wait," My mother chimed in.

"How long will that be?"

"A few hours," my Dad admitted.

"No! That's too long. I'll implode!" My father sighed while shaking his head. I saw My mother lean in close to him and she began to whisper a bunch of words. I really couldn't hear what she was saying…except for "hyperactive," and "pay back." But that was it.

"Hey Dad," Beau began again.

"What is it?"

"Do you like kitties?"

"Ok," My mother broke off. "We're going to play the quiet game now. Whoever wins gets an ice-cream cone at lunch, ok? So be quiet. We're starting now."

"Oh boy! I like ice-cream…I want ice-cream. I am soooo going to win this! It's in the bag. It's been decided. It's been prophesied. I can already taste it. Yeah, this is all mine! Sooo gonna win…"

"Beau," I spoke up while lifting my head.

"I think I'll get...chocolate."

"Beau," I said a little louder.

"Yeah?"

"…you already lost." There was a small silence. For a minute all that could be heard was the rush of the car and the muted sound of the radio. Beau's face was blank and his mouth was agape.

"…well….you lost too!"

"Oh no. Ice-cream is my life. Whatever shall I do?" I said that in a monotone voice. Beau got the idea, but it didn't keep him quiet. I'm ashamed to admit that My mother's hopes and dreams were also crushed…oh well; this was all their idea anyways.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Have you ever felt like you don't belong in your family? If so, welcome to my world. Here I am. And here are my parents:

"That dude cut in front of me," My Father muttered. Immediately, he slammed his fist on the horn, and kept it there resulting in one long continuous beep:

_BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP_.

"Butch!" My mother reacted. He looked up at her casually without moving his hand. "Lay off the horn!" She cried.

"Hey, I can lay on the horn if I want to." He lifted his fist and banged it against the steering wheel.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

"Quit it! You're gonna make people think that we're insane!" My Mother lifted out her arms to stop him.

"I'm insane," Beau broke in.

"No they won't. They'll just think you're insane."

"Why me?"

"Because your nagging is louder then the horn."

"Boo," I jeered while pointing my 'thumb' downward.

"Lame come-back, Dad," Bell mocked.

"Yeah, and you're just jealous because I beat you at that arm-wrestling contest."

"I LET YOU WIN!"

"You're gonna drive off the highway," my Mom complained while grabbing the wheel. Instinctively, she drove the car away from the grass alongside the road.

"Well, if I did…"

"Keep your eyes on the road, you…." She sighed suddenly, and closed her eyes, "…ding-dong."

"I like ding-dongs," Beau added again.

"Well, maybe if you would—"

"Road!"

Thankfully, that got my Dad's attention. After swerving back onto the road, things quieted down a little bit. It didn't last though…

"I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm HUUUUNNNNGRRRY!"

"Beau, be quiet," my Mother answered him.

"Mommy, can we go to Taco Bell?"

"Yeah, I wanna go to Taco Bell," Bell agreed.

"No, I wanna go to Sonic now," Beau responded.

"No, let's go to Dairy Queen." Bari interjected.

"No, let's go to China Buffet," Bell said.

"I thought you hated Chinese food," I accused.

Bell gasped, "I know what's even better! We can go to MacDonald's, then we can go to Wendy's, then we can go to Hardy's, and then Popeye's Chicken..."

"No!" Beau screamed. Bell jumped. It was silent for a few brief seconds. Suddenly, Beau leaned his head over my seat and brought his head next to mine. I heard him whispering: "_Let's go to Arby'ssss_."

"Will someone feed the child before he kills me?" I bleated in a S.O.S sort of tone. Personally, I was kind of in the mood for KFC. But, that wouldn't have helped the situation much.

"Ok, fine! We'll stop. Where do you want to go?"

All three of my siblings yelled at once. Unfortunately, they all yelled something different. In conclusion, everybody in my family lack communication skills and are unintelligible.

"Daddy," Bell whined. "I want pizza."

"But I want French fries!" Beau objected.

"My opinion outranks all of yours!..I want fried chicken," I decided with comical tranquility. Yeah, I'm just awesome like that, because I used the word tranquility.

"If you guys aren't quiet, then we're all gonna sit in the parking lot and eat baloney." Dad snapped.

"NOOOOOO!" Beau shouted.

"Boy, you're the first one on my list. Don't make it worse for yourself!" I grinned a little.

"Ok, you better go on the next exit," my mom said.

"Yeah, it looks like we're a little low on gas," I piped in.

"Alright, fine. Buttercup, you call the others."

"M'k." My mom instantly whipped out her cell phone from her purse. Yeah, I know what you're thinking: Buttercup has a purse? No way. Guess it's that "Mom-syndrome" that affects people sometimes.

"Oh wait, I forgot we have to turn north at this point," Dad exclaimed.

"Wait," Bari broke in. "Where are we anyways?"

"Well, we're supposed to be in Kansas right now, Bari." She turned to the driver, "What do you mean we were supposed to turn north?"

"Like, right now! We're in Oklahoma. And Kansas is like…above Oklahoma. In other words we need to be going…north!"

"No, honey we're in Michigan," she said sarcastically. "Of course we need to go north! Just pull over in this exit and we'll figure out where we are there."

"Ok, well call Bubbles and Boomer, and tell them what we're doing."

"Oh, they'll figure it out," Mom responded.

"Ummm….no, you need to call them."

"Why? I mean, it's kind of obvious we're supposed to be going north."

"N-no, honey, Boomer is driving. You _need _to call them," my dad said calmly.

"But I'm sure everyone knows where Kansas is..."

"No…no, listen: this is Boomer. You _need_ to call them." His voice got more intense and urgent.

"But…"

"No, Buttercup, it's..._Boomer_. Please, ju-just call them." Sighing reluctantly, I heard the phone flip up and the number was dialed.

It took a while, but we finally got the message through my uncle's head.

"Are we in Kansas yet?' Beau asked loudly.

"We will be in a minute," My dad answered. I felt the car shift a little. Looking out my side window, I watched the exit sign fade away behind us. The whole place looked barren. I mean literally; there was _nothing_ around us, except some dry dirt and dead things…I think.

"Where are we? The desert?"

"It looks scary."

"What the heck? When was the last time it rained here?"

"I bet this place is cursed," someone commented.

"I think the Bread Basket of America just turned into crumbs. Where are we gonna stop anyways?" I asked.

"I dunno; Butch, where the heck are we?"

"Ummm…Kansas?" My Mom turned her head over to him with a disapproving glare. "What?" He asked defensively.

"Just wait, I'm gonna get calls from everyone asking where we are…and I'm supposed to answer, "umm…Kansas?"

"Yup."

"This is a depressing place," I continued. "It makes me want to cry." My voice was monotone the whole time. "Is anyone brave enough to even live here?"

"Here dear, you get the GPS," my dad ordered. While digging through the glove compartment, my mom began another rampage.

"You know we probably should have used this to begin with, but somebody decided to use a map. Ben, fly outside and see if you can see anything up ahead."

"What do you want me to look for?"

"Just somewhere to stop," my father answered. He turned to his wife. "And we were doing pretty well with the map. At least I knew when to turn north."

"Yeah, an hour ago," she counteracted. I rolled down the window and unbuckled my seatbelt as they continued to bicker. While grabbing the sill of the car, I launched myself out of the window into the dry Kansas air. Of all my powers, flying is probably my favorite.

"Go, Spiderman, go!" Beau cheered at me as I jumped out of the car. His voice got quieter and quieter as I flashed away, leaving a dark green streak trailing behind me. _Since when can Spiderman fly? _I thought to myself.

It felt good to get out of the car again. The wind was really dry, but it still felt nice. Just the many joys of flying.

After stretching a little bit, I found it hard to resist racing across the sky, just to get it out of my system. I warn you; doing the Superman fist thing is a lot harder then it looks. It's surprisingly really hard to balance that way. I can't even count how many times I've almost fallen out of the sky from attempting it. Well, after a while, you get used to it I guess.

Anyways, I zoomed around a little bit just to knock out as much energy as I could. It usually feels pretty good, but this air was so dry, I felt like my lips were about to chap.

A did a few letter-patterns and stuff ahead of the car…come on; I'm not that much of a show-off. It's just fun doing the loop-de-loops. Although I must admit: it's pretty cool when you're flying and all the people below you can see is dark green color-streaks in the sky.

So, I whooshed across the Kansas 'plain.' All I saw was sky, dirt, sky, and…more dirt. You know those little pictures in the books? It makes Kansas look like a big quilt of farms and stuff. Haha, No! Exact opposite of what I experienced. What do I mean? I repeat, dirt, sky, and more dirt. Really sad if you ask me.

Apparently, some people can survive here. As I crossed the plain, I saw a few small buildings jumbled together. Let's see, there was a fast-food restaurant, a general store, a doctor's office, a quilting shop, a mattress store, and a couple more things. You don't think you find such a variety of stores and buildings slam dab in the middle of NOWHERE!

Oh-well, mission complete. I better report back. I paused in the middle of the sky, and turned around. After about seven minutes of watching the road, I spotted our green SUV glimmering down on the old broken highway. See, even the streets had some effect from the air!

Well, I waved my hands above my head to signal life up ahead. I really wish I had fingers. After I made sure the others caught my signal, I dived down towards the car. Now for the tricky part: getting back in the car through the window. Yeah, the laws of physics still apply for super-people…or, whatever.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"We're lost, aren't we?"

"We are NOT lost! We are just traveling in unfamiliar territory and have no idea where we're going."

"And that's not lost?"

"No, they are two totally different things." How many times have you heard that one? Well, when I finally managed to get back in the car (don't ask how), we tried to go in the direction I instructed…but of course, these things don't always work out the way we plan.

"Ben," my mother complained, "I thought you said it was just up that hill?"

"I thought it was too," I explained.

"How far up did you go?" Bari questioned.

"Not _that_ far," I answered.

"Can we turn the AC on?" Beau requested.

"Well, you obviously went up farther than you thought," Mother inquired, "because we should be there by now."

"AC, please?" Beau asked again, who didn't appreciate being ignored.

"Hey," I defended. "I'm not a sloppy navigator. I know what I'm talking about."

"Then where are we?" she insisted.

"How the heck should I know? This place isn't on the map!"

"I'm burn'in up," Beau reminded.

"Maybe we should stop and ask for directions," my Mom suggested. How many times have you heard _that_ one?

"Who do we ask? The telephone poles? There's nobody out here!" Dad cried.

"I'm hot!" Beau complained. His voice became louder.

"Why don't you ask them, honey, I'm sure you'll know exactly what to say." My father turned his head around slowly to face her. There was silence. I was kind of scared for a moment….well, not really.

"Oh, so now you're making fun of my personality, huh?" Dad shouted defensively. _Oh, sweet relief,_ I thought.

"No genius, I'm making fun of your hair." I'm glad my parents understand each other's humor. Things would be pretty ugly by now if not.

"Well, why don't you talk to the dirt? I'm sure it will respect your morals."

"That was low blow."

"If I aimed any higher, I'd miss."

"AC…it stands for _air conditioning_."

"Great come-back, Dad," I jeered while nodding my head.

"Now we definitely should be there…" Bari reminded.

"Well maybe we took a wrong turn," Mom advised.

"Where is there to turn?" Dad countered in frustration. He flung his hands forward a little in exasperation.

"_I'M ON FIRE_!" Beau screamed.

"Beauregard!" Mother shrieked wrathfully.

"Yes, Mommy?" He replied in his most innocent voice. Beau was lucky this time. "Mommy's" phone began to ring. She sighed in resentment and dug the phone out of her overstuffed purse.

"It's Bubbles," she informed her husband. He nodded, and after flicking opened the cellular device, the conversation began.

"Hello? We're trying to. No…well, I don't know. Maybe, why? Really? Ok, I guess so. You're behind us, right? Ok, ok. Thanks. See yah, sis."

"What did she say?" Bell asked.

"She said Ben is awesome, and you should all listen to him more often," I explained. Bell glared at me.

"She _said_ the town is about five more miles up," Mother corrected.

"Well, I didn't think it was that far up…but at least I was right. Score!" I lifted up my hand, and made a grasping motion in the air. "Take that, all of you who didn't believe me!"

"You mean your mother?" Beau muttered.

"Yes, her most of all!" I exclaimed with mock rage. Mom leaned over her seat and shot me a warning scowl.

"….I love you," I chirped nervously.

Everything was quiet after that. I was beginning to wonder if we would break a record. Five whole minutes went by…I was amazed. I was shocked. I was _astounded_. I spoke too soon.

"You know what's weird?" Beau asked suddenly. "Nobody turned on the AC yet." My mom let her arm fall on the console. My Dad mumbled something under his breath that I couldn't hear. I had a pretty good idea of what it was though.

"Hey look! A town," My Dad announced.

"We're saved!" Beau exclaimed while waving his fingerless arms in the air above his head.

"We're not going to die today," I added. "Tomorrow is another story, but we won't die today!"

"Oh, hush," Bari grumbled after rolling her eyes.

"Daddy, can I get a chocolate bar?" Bell asked.

"Can I get a Twinkie?" Beau wondered.

"You can have a chocolate bar after lunch, Bell. Beau, you're having baloney."

"Why do you hate me?" he sniveled.

"Don't speak to your father like that Beau, or you'll get nothing." Mom corrected.

Approaching the town felt like forever. I kind of wanted to get out of the car. I'm not one of those people who can stay cooped up for long. I know it is _extremely_ hard to tell because of my quiet and serene siblings.

Eventually, we drove onto this beat up road with buildings scattered on each side. Every now and again there was a store and then nothing. Store, and then nothing. It was kind of creepy. Everything was just plain…weird! What freaked me out the most is knowing that there was nothing around. No trees, no grass, no civilization. Nothing. The ultimate Twilight Zone moment.

"What is this place, anyways? It gives me the creeps," Beau pointed out.

"The GPS doesn't say anything about it," Bari admitted. "Now, _that_ gives me the creeps."

"What gives me the creeps is trying to figure out how you got the GPS," I said.

"It's magic, Ben."

"Witchcraft I say!"

"Guess we can stop there. They sound desperate," my Dad suggested. He pointed to a neon road sign, which said "Burgers, really cheap! 2 mi."

"I don't know, I'm not really in the mood for burgers," my Mother objected.

"I don't think we have a choice," Dad answered.

"The Sweet Stuff Bakery is a choice." Beau pointed to an odd looking two storied building. The top story looked wider then the bottom. A product of bad construction.

"Ok."

A few minutes later we approached a red and yellow trailer that was converted into a restaurant. A few parking spots were open in the front. Actually, all of them were opened. Nobody was there. I was beginning to think this might not be the best idea. Our car pulled into the first one, and the other two pulled in beside us.

"Yesss, I'm soooo hungry!" Beau bounced up and down in his seat waiting for someone to open the door.

"Careful, you'll break the springs. And then you'll eject yourself and die."

"Coooooool. I'm so hungry."

"We can tell." I threw my door open and jumped out outside, relieved to finally get some fresh air. Well, the freshest air you can get in a parking lot. Beau bounded out beside me as I began to stretch. Beau stood there for a minute and then copied my example.

"Oh, you two look so much like your Father," someone called. I ooked up to see who was talking. My aunt Blossom was leaning against her car and watched us wearily.

"Oh, goody," I answered to the comment of my appearance. "I have so much to look forward to." She grinned and chuckled a little.

"You have no idea," she added.

"Oh, joy!" I said enthusiastically.

"Well, it's better then what my boys have to look forward to," she sighed.

Three little boys hopped out of the door beside her. They all had red hair and eyes, save for one. He was the youngest and happened to have pink eyes like his mother. This is Blazer, who is five, and as you can imagine, he gets a _lot_ of attention from those eyes of his.

"Hey, Beau!" one of them yelled while running over to my brother.

"Hi Bruno," Beau greeted. Bruno was the second youngest in his family, at seven.

"Guess what I did," Bruno ordered excitedly. He had a mischievous look in his eyes. _Oh boy, this ought to be interesting,_ I thought. I leaned up against the car and looked down on them quietly.

"I found a cock-ca-roach on the window!"

"Cool! Do you still have it?" Bruno looked like he was holding back laughter. He cupped his hands around his mouth, and whispered in Beau's ear.

"N-nope," he replied faintly.

"Where is it?" Beau interrogated. He sounded like he _needed_ to know. Well, this is Beau, so I wouldn't be surprised.

"I…I," Bruno continued, fighting back laughter.

"What? Come on, spit it out!" The suspense was killing me. No really, I kind of wanted to know myself.

"I put it in my sister's hair," Bruno admitted with an entertained grin. Now, both the boys were fighting back laughter until they couldn't take it. Both of them burst out panting with amusement. I fought back laughter myself, but was able to contain it.

"How did she react?" Beau asked.

"She hasn't figured it out yet! _That's the best part_," Bruno lowered his voice to a whisper as he finished his statement.

In my Aunt Blossom's family, there are five kids. The oldest is Bethany, who is fourteen…like Bari! Aren't I lucky? She has pink eyes too, surprisingly. She tries to use that as comfort for her brother, but it doesn't really work much. The next is Brett, who is twelve. Birch is after him, who's ten, then Bruno, and last but not least: Blazer.

"Hey Ben," someone welcomed. It sounded like Beth's voice, so I looked around.

"What?" I asked while looking both ways.

"I'm up here, Sherlock." I tilted my head up to see the bottom of my cousin's pink converse.

"Oh…there you are. Hey," I greeted.

"I see your observation skills have improved since I last saw you," she commented intellectually. "The drive up here must have given you plenty of time to think."

"Yeah, I wish. Why are you floating anyways?"

"To get on your nerves."

"Of course. Figures," I replied after shrugging. Beth lowered herself to the ground.

"So, where is your sister?"

"I don't know. Try the other side of my car."

"Ben? What are you looking at?"

"Oh, umm…nothing." She must have spotted me looking around at her hair, attempting to spot the offending cockroach…or 'cock-ca-roach' if you ask Bruno.

"Then what are you starring at?"

"Well, your hair. It looks so…shinny," She raised her eyebrow, and I could tell she wasn't buying it…well then again, who _would_ buy it? I was preparing for another defense.

"Come on guys, time to eat!" In little more then a few seconds, a torrent of twelve famished children came flooding over me and my cousin. I backed up against the car and pretended to be panicked. Five boys rushed to the door yelling "FOOOOOOOOD!"

"Beau! If you don't calm down, all you'll be eating is concrete," I heard my Dad shout.

"Hey guys!" A peppy voice called behind us. We both turned around and saw Brooke hop in.

She was jogging in place and had an energetic look.

"How was your ride? Mine was great! We watched this movie, and then me and Blythe played cards and I totally creamed her in slap-jack. After that, we played this road game. My dad would ask questions about these things on the road and we'd have to guess what they were. It was mostly for the little girls but it was soooo funny. When my dad said 'so what is flat and…blue?' and Junior said 'Mommy!' and we were all laughing it was sooo funny."

"Glad you had fun," I responded.

"We had _so_ much fun!"

"I tried to sleep," I told her.

"Well that's no fun!" She exclaimed. "I hate sleeping. Whenever I'm in the car, I always try to do stuff. I mean sleeping…it's just like you just lie there and then you sleep; I mean there is nothing interesting about that. You don't do anything. I at least try to read a book, or color, or play with the little girls or something. I mean, I feel so uninvolved when I just sleep…" She lost me after 'no fun.'

My aunt Bubbles' has five kids. First there is Brooke who is thirteen, Blythe who is eleven, then Bridgett who is nine. Belinda is next. She's four, and last of all is Boomer Jr. We just call him Junior. Two years old and he's already a rocket scientist compared to his Dad.

"Well, Ben keeps starring at me," Beth mumbled. Brooke gave me a surprised look, but she was still smiling.

"Why Ben! How rude. No wonder you always sleep in the car…Who stares at their own cousin's hair? It is obviously someone who suffers from the chronic disorder of sleeping in the car while traveling."

"Pardon my ill manners. Obviously, they occurred thanks to the habit of sleeping in the car."

"Exactly," Brooke agreed, shrugging her shoulders.

"You guys coming?" My uncle Brick was holding open the door.

"Coming Daddy," Beth retorted. She jogged up to the door. Brooke and I followed.

Inside the trailer restaurant…thing, there weren't enough seats for all twenty people, so, unfortunately, the older kids had to stand. Really lame country music played in the back. I thought I was going to hurl.

Suddenly, a giant pig busted out of the door behind the counter.

"Welcome to John Bonne's! Home to the best-look'in, juiciest burgers in all of Nowhere! I'm John Boone, what's your….." the pig dude paused and looked in awe at all the people before his bar. Belinda shrieked fearfully when he popped out. She jumped off her seat and scrambled over to her Mother.

"Mommy," she bawled. Aunt Bubbles took her arm and rapped it around her little daughter.

"It's ok honey," she explained. "He's just a giant pig going to take our order going to take our order." I smiled. Talking pigs? Ehh, I've seen weirder.

Before the John Bonne guy could say anything else, another screech rang out. Everyone turned their head towards the screaming. Beth jumped out of her seat and whacked at her head furiously.

"Get it off! Get it off," she squealed. "Eww. Eww. Eww. Eww." Suddenly, a little black spot flew off her shirt and landed on the counter in front of Blythe. Bruno, Beau, Brett and Birch started laughing their heads off. They were panting so hard, I literally thought one of them would fall over. I admit it…I started laughing too. Well then again, how could you not?

"Brick!" Aunt Blossom gasped. My dad walked over to the counter quietly and smashed the cockroach with a napkin holder. He slammed it several times until he was sure it was gone, and walked away calmly as if nothing had happened.

"Brick?" she repeated.

"Wha-what?" he gulped.

"Discipline your son!" Uncle Brick spun his chair around and jumped up from his seat.

"Alright, which one of you did it?" There was silence for a minute, save for Beth's wheezing. All the boys were silent. After a minute, they all pointed to Bruno.

"Thanks for ratting me out, guys!" Bruno complained.

"Bruno, you know that was wrong, right?" Uncle Brick stood over him threateningly.

"Yes," Bruno replied humbly. He starred at the ground quietly.

"Then why did you do it?"

"I thought it might be funny…"

"Is that any way to treat your sister?"

"…maybe…"

"Get to the car," he ordered. Bruno turned around and walked towards the door. When nobody was looking, Brick held out his hand and Bruno high-fived it before exiting the building.

"It was in my hair," Beth sobbed miserably.

Yeah, that restaurant experience was a total fail. After everyone ordered their food, we left. Nobody questioned us.

When we got back into the car, I leaned my head up against the window. The depressing landscape was really starting to get to me. Just as I thought that, we passed a wooden farmhouse. A little windmill was slowly creaking beside it.

"Mom," Bari stated. "Why are we slowing down?"

"That's a good question. Why _are_ we slowing down, Butch?" She responded almost irritably.

"Because it's all smoky out here, and I don't want to hit something," Dad answered.

"It's not smoky out this way," Bari and I told them. It really wasn't. I was looking out my window and didn't see any smoke.

"It is where I'm looking," my Dad told us.

"Wait a minute," my Mother said. Nobody said anything after that. I looked up from my window. _Oh, now what?_

"The engine is on fire!" Beau howled in excitement. I thought he was joking at first, but both my parents began to panic. _Wait, our_ _engine is seriously on fire?_ I thought. Now I could see it: billowing smoke pouring from underneath the hood.

"Here, just pull over," Mom advised. "We'll all fly out when we park, and I'll get Blossom to put it out."

"Alright, sounds good," Dad replied. We slowed down as much as we could, and Dad pulled the car over to the side. That didn't end well. As we were shifting, a huge force knocked us backwards.

_CRASH!_

The whole car twisted around. Glass shattered and shards and splinters littered the front seats. The metal groaned and bent, crumpling as the telephone pole collided into us. The brakes shrieked as my father attempted to stop their vehicle. Another crash came from my side of the car. It dented the door and knocked me over to the other side on the floor. Worst time _ever_ to forget your seatbelt. I slammed onto the floor, and the impact knocked the air out of my lungs. When all the crashing and bumping was done, we looked around the car.

"Is everyone ok?" Mom asked shakily. The windshield had shattered and the smoke was engulfing the front seats.

"Yeah," I answered from the floor, coughing from the smoke.

"I'm ok," Bari responded. She was up against the window.

"Me too," Bell whimpered. There wasn't another call. We waited a little longer: but still no fourth reply. I got up off the floor and onto the middle seat.

"Beau?" I called quietly, fearful that there would be no answer.

"Beau?" Mom copied. She sounded much more worried. "Beau!"

"Is he back there, Bell?" Dad asked.

"I can't tell. I'm squished." She said, squinting against the gray-black cloud.

"Beau," my Mother called again. She was way more panicked this time. I got up and checked the back seat. Bell had a suitcase toppled on top of her. I leaned over and pushed it off. _Where's your brother?_ I wanted to ask. For some reason I couldn't get it out. I don't know why.

"Beau! Where are you?" Bari muttered. There was silence. Nobody spoke.

"Beau," everybody yelled one more time.

"Here I am," came his cracked voice. He picked himself up from behind the very back seat. Relief washed over me. "I'm ok," he reassured.

"Phew," I sighed. "Thought we lost you there for a sec, bro."

"Really? Maybe I should have stayed there longer. I bet you would have cried." All the feelings I had early left instantly.

"Beau!" she shouted angrily this time. "I can't believe you would do that! Do you know how worried we were? We thought you were dead! This is no time for joking. We were in a collision! Don't you see how dire this situation is? We could be stuck here for days! We don't need little boys scaring their mothers half to death…"

"Mom, I have one question?"

"Eh…what?"

"Did the cheeseburgers make it?"

"I'M GOING TO RING YOUR LITTLE NECK AND THEN I'M GONNA…"

"Dear, I think we need to re-think our parenting strategy…" Dad counseled. Good to know everyone was ok.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Butch you idiot!"

I turned around and walked over to the back of our totaled car. After everyone exited the car, we checked for injuries and inspected the rest of the mess. The other vehicles were slammed into the back of each other. Our green SUV was faced sideways in half of the road.

"Well, that's just great! You just _had_ to swerve into the telephone pole," Brick exploded. "Don't you have eyes?"

"No, I drive with my ears!" Butch spat. Beau and I leaned our heads over the other side of the SUV. The engine was still smoking, and the right side of the car was molded around the pole..

"Nice thing to happen at vacation," Beau said.

"Well, that's just brilliant, you—"

"Honey," Blossom began calmly. She placed her hand gently on his shoulder. "The _children._" She nudged her head towards the automobiles. Several bewildered children stumbled out of the cars onto the blacktop.

"Oh yeah," he ended quietly. "Is everyone ok?" He called over is shoulder. Blossom sighed.

"That's not exactly what I meant, but whatever."

"We're cool," Boomer waved. He was standing by the hood of his dark blue Chevrolet. "A few bruises…" he paused for a minute and peeked through one of the windows. "…and possibly a broken arm, but nothing serious!" he continued. Bubbles slammed her door shut angrily. Junior was in one arm, and Lindy was gripping her leg on the other side. They both had hot tears streaming down their faces.

"Lovely," she exclaimed while slamming the door. "Just lovely."

"That was _sooooooo_ cool! Can we do it again?" Bruno shouted as he jumped out of the backseat. Nobody answered him, although Brick glared down at him disapprovingly.

"Ok…so now what?" Boomer asked.

"Well, first we need to take a head count," Brick answered.

"Uwww! Uwww! I wanna do the headcount!" Beau demanded while jumping up and down.

"Ummm…ok," Brick replied.

"Ok, ok….IS ANYBODY ALIVE?"

"Nope," I answered while stuffing my hands into my pockets…even though they barely fit.

"ALRIGHT!" Beau turned to his uncle. "Ben's dead."

"Why don't we just fly to the next town? I doubt anyone would care if we did…" Bubbles broke in. "I doubt many people even live out here."

"Yeah, she's right," Boomer concluded.

"No, she's a potato," Brick scoffed. Boomer's eyes suddenly got wider and he leaned his head in closer to Brick.

"Really?"

"Yeah," I smiled. "You married a potato."

Bubbles gasped. "I am _not_ a potato!"

"Don't listen to her," Brick whispered to Boomer. "She is. Can't you see the resemblance?…OW!" A rock swung through the air, and knocked him in the side of the head. Brick covered his wound, and looked in the direction of the rock. Blossom had her arms crossed and she was shaking her head back and forth slowly.

"Enough!" Buttercup growled. "We need to figure out what we're going to do now….please?"

"Ok, ok," Blossom sighed. She lifted her hands to signal everyone to calm down. "Maybe there are some citizens nearby who can help us."

"I think I saw a farmhouse down this way," I began. "I don't know if anyone lives in it, but we could try."

"I think I know what you're talking about," my father retorted. "Which way was it?"

"Ummm…down here I think. Maybe they can be of assistance."

"That sounds good to me," my Mom bleated impatiently. "Let's get moving."

"I wanna waffle!"

"Beau, hush," Mom corrected. "We don't have any waffles."

Brett raised his hand. "I like Beau's idea."

"Yes! Score," Beau whispered while making a grasping motion in the air. "Two votes! Any other takers? Huh? Huh?" Bruno and Blazer raised their hands too.

"I do! I do!" they shouted while jumping slightly.

"No!" Butch growled. "No waffles! We're going to the farmhouse, and waffles are not in the picture."

Beau and Bruno waved their thumbs down. "Boo!" They hissed.

"Why is this taking so long?" I asked. "Can't we just leave?"

"No!" Beau shouted playfully. "We can't."

"Why not?"

"Because you don't know why New York was named New York!"

"What?"

"Exactly!"

"Then why was Wisconsin named Wisconsin, waffle boy?" I asked tiredly. Beau paused for a minute.

"Because….because it's a type of cheese! Ha! I win, now let's go get waffles." My mother sighed reluctantly.

"Ok, that's enough. Beau, if you can't hush, then we are going to make you sleep with Belinda," she jeered.

"And she's been drinking soda," Bridget defended.

"NOOOOOOO!" Beau yelped. "Why do you hate me so?"

"Alright, well now it's getting too late to do anything," Blossom replied crossly. "I guess since we are facing such _desperate_ times, we should follow through with Ben's plan."

I guess that's what did it. I had to lead the way down the road why my Dad helped carry the cars. I know that sounds really weird, but that's the benefit of having super strength.

I was flying towards the front, but Brooke zoomed up next to me. A dark blue streak dissolved into the air behind her.

"So, who are these people anyways?" She inquired.

"I have no idea," I responded. "Except for the fact that they're people who live in the middle of Nowhere….or if there's anyone there at all."

"Ok, is it just me, or does anybody else think that this is totally unsafe," I heard. I looked up and saw Beth floating above me. "Yeah, me too," Brooke concurred.

"Oh come on," I objected. "What could they do?"

"Open the door with a shotgun," Beth stated. Suddenly, Bari flew up on my other side, underneath Beth.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Just discussing the important phrase, 'don't talk to strangers' to Ben," Brooke answered her. "I think he really needs this talk. I mean, who goes up to some random people and asks them if we can stay in their house? That's just dangerous. Just think about it! I bet they…"

"Hey," I interrupted. "First of all, we are not asking to spend the night in there house! We're just asking for assistance. Besides, what could go wrong, if…?"

"Don't say that you, idiot! Our little cousins and siblings might be scarred for life," Brooke supposed.

"Well, how likely is that? And besides, our parents have been fighting and causing crime since they were six. If they could handle it, I'm sure we can too.

"Yeah!" Cried a new voice. I looked down and saw Brett flying underneath us. "I think your right, Ben. If our parents could fight crime at six, why can't we do it as teens?"

"Exactly…wait, have you been eavesdropping?" I questioned suspiciously.

"Yes…I mean no! Well, I was…I mean…"

"It's ok, I'm not mad at you," I cut off. "Freedom of speech."

"You're not a teenager yet, Brett," Beth reminded him irritably. "Why don't you go play with Birch and Blythe?"

"No, I want to stay here," he complained. The problem with Brett is he always tries to act older then he is. Being twelve, he already considers himself a teenager for some reason, and always wants to be with the older ones. Because of that, he tries to hang out and fit in with us. I try to include him more then the girls do. He the closest male cousin to my age, but Brooke seems to be the only one who even acknowledges him.

"No, go away!" Bari demanded. "We don't want you here."

"Freedom of speech!" Brett protested.

"What? That doesn't even make sense," Beth fussed. "Freedom of speech has nothing to do with you flying with us."

"Well, whatever. I'm staying here." Beth and Bari sighed.

"Let's just ignore him," Bari proposed. "Maybe he'll get bored and try to find entertainment."

"Like running into a billboard," Beth grumbled.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

After about two seconds, we approached the farm house.

"This is it?" I looked around and found Bruno flying next to me. "What kind of a house is this?"

"Is that supposed to hold _all_ of us?" I looked on the other side of me and found Birch starring in surprise at the bare residence.

"Yup," I sighed. Nobody would be letting me off easy for this. I guess I better get used to the ranting.

"Well this is stupid," Birch complained. He spread his arms out in front of him. "There's nothing out here! No fields, no tractors, no animals…"

"There's a chicken coop," I interrupted while pointing to a tiny construction. It was an odd place to keep a coop. It was secluded about twenty yards away from the other buildings and no poultry crowded around it. "And there's a barn out that way." In the complete opposite direction, I pointed to a large white barn with red beams.

"Check out that windmill," Beau laughed. I jumped a little bit and looked behind me. Beau was zigzagging back and forth excitedly.

"It's so wimpy," he giggled. "Heh heh, it's so wimpy." I rolled my eyes slowly, and grabbed him by the collar while he was rocketing past me. He stopped instantly and made a choking sound with his mouth.

"Yeah," I suggested while holding him in mid air. "Why don't you go see how sturdy it is?"

"….OK!" Beau grew a crazy energetic look on his face, and whooshed off towards the windmill. He went too fast for me to keep hold of him.

"No! Beau, wait I didn't mean…" I cuffed my hands around my mouth trying to get his attention, but obviously he was too eager to care.

He flew around the top a few times, making the nose of the windmill gradually spin faster and faster. The light green streak wrapped around the top several times.

"Beauregard!" Rang an ear-piercing yowl. Both my cousins and I flinched. My Mother flew past all of us towards the house. "Get away from there now, or I'll whack you in the head with the car door!" Beau slowed down a little and landed at the foot of the windmill.

"Awww, but Moooom, it was just about to fall down!"

"I thought he wasn't going to stop for a minute," Birch commented.

"If he didn't," I began. "I think we'd be missing a little bit more then the car door."

"Ok," I heard Brick instructing behind us. Boomer was floating a few yards off the ground. He was holding one of the cars above him, and Brick was trying to clear a spot for him.

"Now put the car down slowly. We don't want the tires to…" BAM! "…blow out." Brick growled and slammed his hand against his face.

"Oh…ummm…sorry," Boomer apologized. "I was… and the…it…"

"Just…just don't say anything," Brick cut off. My Father flew in beside Boomer and set his car next to the one he dropped.

"What happened to that car?" he asked.

"Boomer happened," Brick complained.

"Ohhhhhhh…right, is everyone here now?" Birch, Bruno and I dived down into the air. We skimmed the surface of the ground, and landed in front of the others. Beau and Buttercup arrived last. Beau had his head drooped and his arms hanging in front of him.

"Butch," Mom commenced. One hand was on her hip, and the other was signaling to her husband. "Come here." My Dad paused for a minute, and slowly walked over to his wife.

"Yeah?" Mom placed both her hands on her young son's shoulders.

"You're in charge of this one," she informed.

"K," he answered lazily. Beau looked up at his Father innocently.

"But…but, Ben told me to do it! He _told _me…" His eyes widened as he spoke.

"Ben doesn't know what he's talking about half the time," my Dad answered. "If somebody told him to give a speech about income taxes, I wouldn't be surprised if he started talking about cupcakes."

"Hey now," I objected. "Don't go diss'in the cupcakes. They're vitally important to our economy and foreign affairs." The little girls giggled and my Dad starred at me for about ten seconds.

"As I was saying," he continued. "If Ben told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?"

"Well yeah, I guess so," Beau shrugged. "I mean, I can fly, right?" He ended his answer with a crooked grin.

"Whatever! The point is, use better judgment then that. That's somebody's property."

"Sorry, Daddy," Beau concluded while hanging his head. Buttercup looked up at Butch.

"You know, humiliating your other child isn't a very efficient parenting strategy…"

"Well, you can correct him next time if you want."

"Oh fine, have it your way," Mom growled. "Let's just get this over with."

"Bubbles," Blossom instructed. "Why don't you keep the kids out here until we're allowed to come in?"

"Ok. Do you want to keep Beau with you, Butch?"

"Hmmm, he can sit in the outcast circle."

"Where's that?" Beau wondered. He tilted his head to one side.

"It's in the car. In the back seat. Go," Dad demanded. He lifted his hand and pointed towards our dark green SUV. Beau slumped away sadly. Suddenly, he turned around and zoomed back.

"Can Bruno come with me?" Hope flickered in his eyes and his face lit up.

"What?" Dad bellowed. "This is the outcast circle. Bruno isn't an outcast. What are you talking about? Now go," he ordered again. Beau slumped away once more, stuffed his bulgy hands into his sweatshirt pockets and flung open the car door.

"Ok, let's get moving," Aunt Bubbles insisted while picking up her two-year-old son.

"Alright young'uns," she stated. "Let's wait over this way. Poor Beau has to sit in that car all by himself."

"Well that's what happens when you try to destroy windmills," Beth retorted.

"That's what he gets for being a poo-brain," Belinda laughed.

"Now Lindy, be nice."

"Actually," I corrected. "I think she's right."

"Now, you shouldn't be saying anything Mr. Commander-in-Cupcakes," Aunt Bubbles accused.

"Oh yeah," I remembered. Not a bad comeback for my aunt. When Bubbles found a good place for us to stay, she set Junior on the ground to stand. He waddled in the direction of the adults.

"Oh, I think he wants his Dad," Bubbles whispered to herself. "Hey Ben, can you grab him for me?"

"Sure," I retorted. I stuffed my hands into my sweatshirt pockets and walked after Junior. He toddled over to Brick and Boomer who were standing in front of the porch. Brick was yelling at Boomer for something stupid, I bet, and Junior walked over to his Father's leg. He lifted his hands up persistently while making 'up' noises.

"Why are you such an idiot?"

"Why are _you _such an idiot?"

"Stop copying me!"

"Stop copying _me_!"

"Why can't you just act like a normal person for once?"

"Because I…because…._you _grow up!" Suddenly, Junior sat down on the ground and started bawling. That easily got their attention. Boomer picked him up and held him in his arms.

"See, you made him cry," Boomer accused.

"What are you talking about?" Brick shook his head. "How do you know you didn't make him cry?" I walked over to Boomer and he handed me his little son.

"What do you mean, Uncle Brick?" I broke in. "You make everyone cry." Brick gave me a serious look and I pretended to be nervous. After that, I walked back over to my cousins why Junior started crying again.

"Daddee," he whined.

"Don't worry; Daddy's just practicing his defensive argument for when he ends up blowing up a building one day. He'll be back in a minute," I comforted. Junior quieted down a little bit when I gave him back to my Aunt. After that, I walked up to the front porch where my dad stood.

"Hey, they have a truck. Check it out! They left the keys in there. Our problems are solved!" I suggested.

"Ben…"

"Yeah, sorry…" It was disheartening to stare at the dusty and misused porch. When Butch saw everyone quiet down, he knocked on the green screen door about three times.

Suddenly, the doorknob began to squeal. It flung open instantly, and an old farmer stood behind it. He had on green overalls, a brown hat, and a pair of small round glasses. His face was set in a permanent frown, and his overall outlook was pretty much uninviting.

"Hey," Dad started. "Do you know where…?"

"We don't want any!" SLAM! I flinched a little from the sudden rejection. That was unexpected. We stood there for about two seconds starring at the door.

"Well…." I finally said. "Now what do we do?" My Dad stood there for a minute not saying anything. Obviously, he had no idea what to do either.

"Ummm…" Suddenly, some sort of racket was going on inside the house.

"Eustace, that wasn't very polite at all," someone complained from behind the door. It sounded pretty faint from where we were.

"Bleh, bleh, bleh," the old guy muttered. WHACK! "OWWW! What did I do?" My father and I stood in confusion. We looked at each other slowly, wondering if we should leave or stay. I wasn't very surprised. I mean, think about it! With a weirdo town like this, how could you expect not to have weirdo citizens? I mean, come on. It's not possible.

"Maybe we should just…" Dad began. Suddenly, the door knob started to turn again, and the screen door swung open.

This time, a plump old woman was at the door. She had poofy-ish white hair and tiny spectacles on (heh heh. I used the word "spectacles"). She had on a greenish-white dress and a yellow apron with big black boots.

"Uhh hey," my Dad began. "Do you know where we can…get cars repaired?" He was obviously lost for words. The old woman put her finger on her chin.

"I think it's called a mechanic," she answered. She had a slight Scottish accent.

"Well, I mean I know that, but are there any in this area?"

"Not any that I can think of," she responded while shaking her head.

"Oh…well, any hotels?"

"Not any good ones," she said with a slight edge in her voice. She placed her hands on her waist, but her welcoming demeanor quickly returned.

"Great," Dad commented hopelessly. "Well, thanks anyways."

"Where are yah headed in such a rush?" she asked in a friendly-like manner.

"Just down the road. My family sort of experienced a little…collision. We're traveling cross-country and things got a bit mixed up."

"Oh my," she exclaimed simply. "How dreadful. The poor dears. Why don't you and your family come in for a cup of tea," she offered.

"Oh that's alright. Thanks for the offer, but we need to find a place to stay until the cars are fixed…"

"Well, why don't you stay for dinner, and spend the night here?"

"Well thanks. I appreciate the hospitality, but there's kind of a lot of us…" My father nodded his head in the direction of the people behind him. _Would this house even be big enough to hold six more people?_

"Oh, nonsense," she replied. "We have plenty of room."

"Naw, it's ok. We'll find somewhere," Dad persisted. He tried to back off the porch a little, and signaled to me to do the same, but the Scottish woman kept insisting.

My Dad stopped and thought it over. I could tell he probably wasn't going to get out of this one. I'm pretty sure we all would go crazy if we stayed in this town any longer.

After a few more moments, we kind of _had _to accept the offer. We eventually had to tell her about how many relatives were with us. She didn't seem to mind much. In fact, she sounded pretty unaffected. After much insisting, we decided to just give up.

"Ok, ok. But just one night. We'll be fine after that," Dad mumbled.

"That would be fine," she concluded. At that, she closed the door, and we zoomed off to the others.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"I had no idea there were so many of you," the old woman chirped. Everyone entered the house single file. I was at the end to keep Blazer and Lindy in line.

"Sorry," Blossom sighed. "If there isn't enough room for all of us, we won't impose."

"We could find another place," Mother offered. I could tell she didn't like it here much. I personally thought it was kind of empty and strange. The wall paper was yellow with roses! You have to be kind of off to have that on your wall.

"Oh no, there's plenty of room. Now that you're all here, why don't you make yourselves at home and I'll get the tea started."

She turned around and stomped into the kitchen, while Blossom followed behind her offering help. Buttercup turned around and whispered something to Brick who was behind her.

"Whoa," Beau jumped. "Check out this old TV!"

"Beau, don't touch anything," Dad commanded. I looked around a little more…even though there wasn't much to look at. Suddenly, I noticed somebody sitting in the red chair beside me. It was the same old guy who shut the door on us. He had a newspaper in his hand that was covering his face.

"Muriel!" He shouted. "Where's my dinner?"

"In a minute, Eustace," I heard from the kitchen. _Ok,_ I thought. _So the old lady must be Muriel._ _That guy_ _must be Eustace._ I glanced back at the chair.

"Benny," Belinda cried. She ran over to me and hugged my leg. "This place is scary. When can we leave?"

"Shhh, Lindy!" I murmured.

"What?"

"Don't say that. You'll offend the people who live here," I explained. I wondered if "Eustace" had any idea we were even there. Uncle Boomer was next to me, and Aunt Bubbles was holding Junior on the other side.

"What's heh?" The old guy grumbled. He put his newspaper down and found us standing there. "Who the heck are you?"

"Hey," I addressed. I pointed my "thumb" to Junior. "This is Boomer the Awesome, and that's Boomer the Idiot." I pointed my other thumb to my uncle.

"Hi!" Boomer piped cheerfully while waving. "….hey, wait a minute…" Boomer slowly glared at me suspiciously. Let me tell you, Boomer glaring is a pretty funny sight to behold.

"You better not argue with him, dear," Bubbles advised. "He was the one who figured out that the cause of our foreign issues was cupcakes."

"Well…..shut up!" Boomer responded pathetically. My only thought was, _she's never gonna let that go, is she?_

"Bleh, bleh, bleh," the old guy answered. "Who cares?"

"Our foreign allies might care," I answered.

"Ben," my Mother warned. I lowered my head a little to let her know I heard her. Belinda let go of my leg and walked over to Eustace. He stood up from his chair and had his hands on his hips angrily. She looked up at him quietly while smiling. He looked back at her with an unwelcoming frown.

"Your head is shaped like a banana," she blinked happily.

"_Daaeooh_!" the old guy groused.

"Lindy," Bubbles corrected. She turned around to look at her Mother. I have to say I agreed with Lindy. That guy's chin was so big; he could use it as a shovel. "Come here," Bubbles ordered. Lindy hopped over to her and stood in front of her mother.

Blossom entered the living room suddenly and approached her sisters.

"Ok," she whispered. "The food is ready, but there are only four seats. Most of us will have to stand, so make sure everyone enters gradually."

"Aren't we all going to eat at once?" Bubbles questioned.

"Of course, but lets enter one at a time so we have time to figure out where everyone is going to sit and stand."

"Alright," I heard my Mother conclude. At that, Muriel stomped into the den and announced everyone to come.

"Puppy!" Belinda screamed. I turned my attention to the direction of the yelp. Belinda ran towards a little pinkish-purple dog standing in the door way of the kitchen.

The dog widened his mouth in an unnaturally large scream, and shouted in fear at Belinda. All the hair stood up on his back, and his eyes widened.

He tried to run off, but Belinda grabbed him in her arms and hugged him tight. She let him go in front of her and stroked the top of his head softly.

See, all the female blondes in my family have something with animals. The dog calmed down as soon as Belinda started petting him.

"Well, isn't that lovely," Miss Muriel cooed. "That's my Courage. He doesn't make many friends, you know."

"I'll be your friend, Courage," Belinda giggled. "Good doggy." Courage…that's a pretty cool name for a dog, I guess. I can't see how he got it. The dog began shivering and babbling as Belinda hugged him, but he wasn't freaking out like before.

"_Hubabilililba! Blibbilla! Buppa, buppa, buppa. Bubabilliba_!" Courage jabbered insanely. _Can dogs even make noises like that?_ I wondered.

"Time for dinner," Muriel announced.


	7. Chapter 7

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 7

I stared in awe at my coffee mug. Dinner was over, and Miss Muriel gave each of the kids a coffee mug containing "happy plums." I wasn't even eating mine. I was just starring at how much sour crème she pilled on them.

Half of the kids had to either sit up against the wall…or eat at the counter. My mother and both my Aunts sat at the table, Blazer and Belinda shared a seat, and my father and uncles stood up behind their wives.

"These plums are _epic_," Brett guzzled. He dug the spoon deep into his mug, scooped up the oozing plums, and shoved the fruit down his mouth. I still wasn't over the whole sour crème thing.

"Thank you so much for all you're doing," Bubbles piped gratefully. "We're so thankful for your hospitality." Junior started reaching towards the spoon on the table. He had his eyes greedily on the plums set out for his Mother. "We can't thank you enough for all you're doing for us."

"Yes," Blossom agreed. "I understand how overwhelming this must be for you."

"Big deal," Mr. Eustace growled from the end of the table. "Give me the plums!" Muriel grabbed the dark blue bowl of fruit and passed it to her demanding husband. She seemed completely unaffected by his rudeness.

"You are perfectly welcome," Muriel answered. "It's lovely to have you here with us. Isn't that right, Courage?" Muriel glanced down at the dog sitting next to the table.

Courage looked up and nodded carefully. "_Mmhmm_," he mumbled.

Beau slammed his face into his coffee mug. Purple plum juice stained the top of his lip.

"Butch," Buttercup whispered. She nudged her elbow against her husband's arm. "Correct him!"

"Correct who now?"

Mother sighed impatiently and clinched her hand into a fist. "Beau. Correct Beau!"

"What's he doing?" Butch asked.

"Daddy," Blazer whined. "I don't like prunes."

"They're called plums, kid." Brick corrected.

"But they're gross, and I don't like purple! Can I have ice-cream instead?"

"No. You can either have plums, or nothing."

"Yeah, Pink-Eyes," Bruno teased. "If you don't eat the plumes, they'll come to life. And when you're not looking, they'll wake you in the middle of the night and get you!"

Blazer's eyes widened, and he gave a worried appearance. Starring down into the coffee mug, Blazer gave a disgusted expression and pushed the plumes away.

"Don't worry Blazer," Beau encouraged. "They're really good!" He waved his spoon carelessly in the air while speaking.

"Alright mister," my mother broke in. "No more plumes for you. You know what they do to you." Beau looked up at her with disappointment.

"But I only had like two plumes! Everyone else gets them. What am I supposed to eat?" My mother grabbed a granola bar out of her purse and handed it to her desperate son.

"Awesome!" He responded. Blazer watched Beau eat the granola bar in shock. He glanced down at his coffee mug, then at his parents, and finally pulled his baseball cap over his face and began crying miserably.

Lindy's eyes began to droop, and she dropped her cup on the floor. Bell rubbed her eyes and put the happy plumes on the counter.

"Well, it looks like the kids are getting a little tired," Aunt Bubbles commented. She readjusted Junior onto her lap, who gave way to frustrated tears. He directed his eyes towards his mother's plumes. "We've had a long day, haven't we?"

Everyone nodded. I myself was feeling a little drained. After entering a dustbowl town, meeting a giant pig, and crashing into a telephone pole, you get pretty tired after a while.

"Are you kidding me?" Beau cried while hopping into the middle of the floor. "I'm not tired a bit. This is only the beginning! I wanna stay up all night! Party, party, part -"

"If you say another word, you'll have a party in the car all by yourself!" Mom warned. Beau looked at her with his hands half raised in the air. Blossom turned to Miss Muriel after the commotion.

"Thank you for dinner. It was superb, but I think it's time for our children to get some sleep. Do you have any room for them?"

"Well, we're a little low on bedrooms," Muriel began. "But you're welcome to the attic."

The attic was big enough to hold all of the kids, but there was only one pop-up bed we could use. Miss Muriel brought us a stack of quilts to lie on the floor. My Mother and Aunts were allowed to sleep in the living room.

While our mothers were getting the little kids ready for bed, Blythe and I escaped to the bathroom. We knew more then well what chores would be awaiting us in the attic.

We brought our toothbrushes with us so we wouldn't waste time though. I pulled mine out and tried to share the sink with my blonde cousin.

"Hey, can I borrow some toothpaste?" she asked. "I left mine with my stuff."

"Ok," I answered. "So, what do you think of this place?"

"I think it's empty and old, my two least favorite things in a house."

Suddenly, Birch zoomed into the bathroom and floated to the ceiling. He was half dressed.

"I defy you, evil knight! You have defeated my people for the last time!" Beau jumped into the doorway after him.

"I rebuke those words, Birchwood of the Swamp-Dwellers! Prepare to meet your doom!" Beau pulled out a twisted bugle. It had white tape circled around the end, and a giant crack sliced down the middle.

"No!" Birch shouted. "Not the Horn of Dinkleland!" The two boys giggled quietly, and continued their forest adventure. "Not my only weakness against the forces of Gallabore! You shall pay for this, Beauregard Bunkley!"

"Haha, hey Birch! How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Bunkley?"

"Sorry," Birch shrugged. "I think it sounds funny."

"Well, stop it! It takes away my epicness."

"Dude," Birch snickered. "You lost all hope of epicness when your parents called you Beauregard."

"Where'd you learn that word anyways?" Beau laughed.

"I don't know, I think I read it from a book once. It belonged to Beth though."

"Your sister reads some crazy stuff. Ok, anyways! You're people have terrorized my family for too long, Birchwood. With one blow from this horn, I shall diminish your kind into oblivion!"

"Noooooo!" Birch cried, while lifting his hands to the ceiling.

"Where'd you two get that bugle anyways?" I asked.

"Shhh, Ben! You're ruining the moment." Beau whispered. "If you want to play Adventures in Gallabore, you'll have to be the squirrel in the background."

"Where's meh bugle?" a cranky voice demanded outside.

"Uh-oh," Beau gasped. Mr. Eustace stomped into the bathroom and growled at Beau.

"Hey! That's _my _bugle!"

"Sorry, Sir," Beau squeaked. He lifted the bugle up to him and Eustace snatched it away. He looked at Birch, who lowered himself to the ground, and grumbled.

"Grrrmmmgggrrr…stupid float'in kids….ggrrriirrrrmm…tak'n meh bugle." He walked away angrily after that. All four of us stared at the doorway until we were sure he was gone.

Birch turned to Beau. "Ah-ha! You weak, miserable fool! Without your magic horn, you're helpless against my magical swamp powers!"

"No Birchwood! Have mercy. I am only a helpless farmer trying to support his wife and children. I only became a knight for the support of the kingdom! Please don't diminish me. Not now! What will my family do?"

"It is too late for that now! Now stand up and take it like a man!"

"Ahhhhhhh!" Beau turned around and took off down the hallway. Birch chased after him. Their green and red streaks trailed behind them.

"Oh!" Muriel cooed from the hallway. Birch and Beau probably rocketed out in front of her. I turned back to the mirror and brushed my teeth. _Up down, up down_.

"Hey boys! No flying in the house!" Uncle Boomer shouted. He was carrying a pile of blankets behind Muriel. "Oh, sorry we forgot to mention this at dinner, but: we all have super-powers," Boomer explained.

Courage gasped at Boomer's exclamation.

"My wife and her sisters are superheroes. My brothers and I used to fight them."

"Well isn't that lovely!" Muriel exclaimed. "Real superheroes…and super-villains! Courage, isn't it grand?"

The purple/pink dog looked up at his master in disagreement.

"Mm'mm, mm'mm," he mumbled.

"Well, we're not really super villains. We kind of just … fly around."

I packed up my stuff and headed to the attic. Blythe followed behind me. I really didn't want to sleep up there with the little kids, but I didn't seem to have a choice. There wasn't enough room for me to sleep anywhere else.

"Hey, where are you guys sleeping?" I asked Uncle Boomer as I passed him by."

"Oh, we're setting up a place in the basement."

"…never mind."

The attic had piles and piles of blankets stacked on the floor. Everyone set up their pillows randomly across the giant bed. Bari and Brooke sat on the pop-up bed. Buttercup was still trying to dress Blazer and Lindy. I grabbed my pillow from the top of my bag and flopped onto the floor.

"Ok, everyone all settled in?" My mother asked. Belinda crawled in beside me with her pink and blue flowered pillow.

"Can I sleep with you, Benny?" I sighed resentfully. Lindy's cuteness was too much for me to bear.

"Sure, but you have to promise you'll go right to sleep."

"Ok!" She smiled cheerfully. Butch entered the attic behind his wife.

"I think it's time for everyone to get settled in," he announced.

"Uncle Butch! Uncle Butch! Can you tell us a story?" Bridget begged.

"Yeah! A story, please?" All the little kids began begging and cheering.

"Well, ok, but just one though," he responded. Butch leaned up against the door post and lifted his hands to motion.

"So once I was beating up this police officer, and…"

"Butch!" Buttercup smacked him in the arm before he could continue.

"Oww! What?"

"Stop that! You're being a bad influence."

"What did I say? And they wanted me to tell them a story."

"Well tell them a story they'd actually like to hear!" Dad looked at my mother for a few brief seconds. Suddenly, he slowly lifted his face into a dirty grin.

"Oh, not that story! Get out of here you dumb pervert!" Buttercup smacked his arm again, and shoed him out the doorway.

"Oww, ok, ok!" Butch laughed. "G'night guys! I'll tell you a story tomorrow."

"Ok, g'night Uncle Butch!" Everyone shouted. Bridget slumped on her stomach beside me.

"Your parents always act like they hate each other," she murmured.

"Well, look who had the first kid," I shrugged.

Once everyone got settled in, I tried to get some sleep, but two minutes didn't go by before everyone started talking.

"I'm hungry," Bruno whined.

"You just ate."

"Well, I didn't eat enough."

"You're going to have to get over it.

"You stink!"

"That computer is freaking me out."

"Then throw a blanket over it."

"No, I need that blanket."

"Well, hey! Don't take mine."

"Stop talking, I'm trying to sleep!"

"Hey guys check it out!" Everyone lifted their heads and saw Beau slouching under the computer table. "I found a raison under here!"

"You're gross, Beau!" Bridget complained.

"Hey, I almost had to eat baloney and the sidewalk! This isn't nearly as bad!" I dug my head under my pillow to drown out the noises, but that didn't help much.

Do I dare walk outside for water? Eh, what the heck. I got up and made my way towards the door, and tried to ignore the questioning voices of my cousins.

Walking down the stairs, I passed the basement door. Inside I heard voices.

"Brick? I'm a-scared of the dark." I heard a large object smack against Boomer's head.

"Oww!"

"Grow up, will you!" Brick growled.

"Wow," I whispered, and walked over to the kitchen.


	8. Chapter 8

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 8

The next morning, the blinding sun shined through the widow, and hit me on the eyes. I woke up, and rubbed my eyes tiredly.

Beth turned around in her spot and sat up. Her hair was almost the same as it was last night. When Beth looked around, she laughed.

"What happened to everyone?"

Everybody was in a different spot then last night. Brooke was sleeping on the pop up bed with Bari, but now she was sideways on the floor. Blazer was lying under the bed sucking his thumb.

Brett was at the bottom of the quilt blanket, and Birch was laid out over his pillow. Beau must have slept underneath the computer desk all night. He was fast asleep under there, with his legs resting against the side of the printer.

"Whoa," I exclaimed. "How did this happen?" Beth shrugged and picked herself off the floor.

"I dunno. I didn't even get any sleep last night."

"I sort of did," I answered. "I dreamed of green ferrets playing poker underwater." Beth laughed.

"Green ferrets?"

"No, not all of them were green. One of them had yellow polka dots. He lost the second round. Stupid polka dotted ferret. I knew he should have gone out the first time." I waved my head back and forth slowly.

"You're weird," Beth sighed.

"So what else is new?" I turned around and saw Brooke lying on the floor. She rested her head on one of her arms. "Wait a minute," she began. "Why am I on the floor?"

"That's a good question," Beth responded.

"I would have sworn I was on the bed. Bari shared it with me last night. I'm glad she did. This floor is really dusty and uncomfortable. I bet I would have gotten splinters if I slept here all night -"

"Hey Brooke, is that a spider on you're arm? It's huge!" I asked. Brooke shrieked suddenly, and started brushing off her arm madly. The screaming awoke several of the children around her. Brett jumped up suddenly and waved his pillow like a weapon.

"Ahhh! Whossa, what…what's going on?" he shouted. Blazer shot his head up, and knocked his head up against the top of the bed. The knock awakened Bari.

"What?" She snarled angrily. Bari isn't the person you want to wake up in the morning. Blazer cried bitterly at hitting his head.

"AAHHH! WHERE? WHERE'S THE SPIDER!" Brooke screamed.

"Ahaha," I cackled while pointing falsely at her.

"Ben! That wasn't funny. How would you like it if someone did that to you? I mean, there was absolutely no reason for that. I did nothing to you. I can't believe you would be so mean!"

Sure, it didn't stop her from talking. Yeah, I probably got her to ramble on more, but it was worth it.

When everybody woke up and got dressed, Courage entered the attic and began typing rapidly on his computer. He spoke out loud to himself as he typed.

"Strange, floating, super-powered people. Big eyes, no fingers, like certain colors," the mutt sputtered. Courage pressed "enter" and waited for the results.

"You twit," the electronic groused. "You don't spell "floating" with a "u". Courage frowned into the monitor and started typing again.

"You know what I mean, just tell me about the kids!"

"Alright, alright. No need to get testy. About twenty years ago the Powerpuff Girls were invented by Professor Utonium in a lab experiment. Utonium tried to make the perfect little girls out of sugar, spice, and everything nice. However, the project back-fired on him when he accidentally added a fourth ingredient to the solution: Chemical X."

Courage gasped in fear. "The chemical is a concentration of unknown nuclear and toxic substances. When added to the concoction, it created three super-powered little girls, who protect their city from crime and evil."

"Ok," Courage typed. "What about their husbands?"

"The Rowdyruff Boys were invented by an eccentric evil monkey known as Mojo Jojo."

"Oh no!" Courage gasped.

"In an attempt to destroy the girls, the villain collected snips, snails, and a dog tail to create powerful rivals to defeat the girls. The boys battled the girls for years, but as time went on, the six eventually fell in love and got married. What a happy ending."

"So the kids must have inherited their parents' super-powers!" Courage gasped.

"I'm so glad you all slept well," a voice trailed from outside the door. The attic entrance swung opened after a minute, and Muriel entered with Bubbles behind her.

"We slept great," Bubbles said. "I really have no idea what we would have done without you're help." Bubbles had Junior in her arms. He scratched at his mother's arm restlessly. Beth and I were standing behind her.

"Ben, Beth, why don't you two help Miss Muriel clean up the blankets?"

"K," I answered. Beth leaned down to help pick up the mess. Courage hopped down from the computer chair.

"Courage, can you be a dear and help our guests clean up the quilts?" Courage sighed tiredly and tumbled over to me and Beth.

"Muriel! Where's meh breakfast!"

"Coming Eustace!"

Breakfast turned out to be almost exactly like it is at home. Bruno and Beau had a contest to see who could eat the most bacon. Bari and Brett fighting about who ate all the eggs. Blazer whining about how he got grits down his shirt. Bridget laughed hysterically and almost squirt orange juice out her nose. Of course, Blythe, Brooke, and Bell had to laugh uncontrollably about the information Bridget shared.

Poor Courage had to eat while ignoring Lindy leaning down every few seconds saying, "Good doggy." Yup, just like at home…minus the "doggy" thing.

After breakfast everyone tried to find their own way of staying entertained. I leaned up against the wall of the kitchen and flipped a quarter I found in my pocket. Muriel walked over to the sink with a stack of dishes in her hands. Courage tried to help by carrying a bunch of cups and plates, but the mess seemed impossible.

Aunt Blossom approached her host with Brooke, Bari, and Beth beside her.

"Oh Muriel, that's an awful large mess to clean up. Why don't you let me and the girls take car of this." Courage gasped in disapproval.

"Well, I guess I could use a little help," Muriel sighed. She wiped her forehead with the wrist of her arm.

"Ok," Blossom smiled. She turned to the three teenagers and began barking orders. "Beth! Get to the sink and wash. Bari! Dry the dishes pronto. Brooke! You put away. Alright girls, let's move!"

Immediately, a streak of colors trailed behind the girls as they zoomed off to complete their tasks. Brooke dashed to the cabinet and back several times until the work was finished in a matter of seconds.

"Oh my! What a talented bunch of young ladies you have," Muriel commented while clapping her hands together.

"Thank you Miss Muriel," the three cousins said in unison. I turned my attention to my parents bickering in the living room.

"Come on, babe. You know that wouldn't be fair. It's blistering out there!"

"Well, I'm sure they'll be fine. Now you know better then anyone that the boys can't stay inside all day." Buttercup nudged her head towards her youngest son.

"Hey Bruno! Guess how many times I can bang my head against the wall before I pass out?" Beau betted excitedly.

"Also, we need some peace and quiet so we can discuss what we're going to do with the cars," Mother continued. Butch sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Alright fine. Ok, come on boys. Everybody outside! Let's go now." I listened in boredom as all my male cousins were rounded towards the door.

"Are there any boys in here?" My father asked as he entered the kitchen. I leaned hard against the wall, trying to escape being caught. Beth giggled, and Bari pointed to me.

"Ok, nice try. Now get outside!"

"Awww," I whined. "What if some weirdo comes out and hits us with a golf club?"

"No need to worry about that. That's your mother's job."

"Oh yeah, I forgot."

"Courage," Miss Muriel added. "Why don't you go outside and keep them company?"

"Alright I'll do it….but I won't like it," Courage answered. He hobbled over to me and we walked outside. A few minutes later all of the girls piled outside. Bari approached me and said, "Uncle Boomer convinced everyone that it wasn't fair for just the boys to be outside."

"Well what do you know? Uncle Boomer's not that dumb after all!...well, concerning some things."

Lindy kept herself occupied by playing with Courage, but everyone else lazed around in tedium.

"So, what should we do?" Blythe asked.

"We could play hide and seek," Bell suggested.

"There isn't anywhere to hide," Birch reminded.

"We could play tag," Bruno retorted. "there's plenty of room."

"I hate that game," Blazer complained. "I always get caught first!"

"That's because you don't run fast enough," Brett snapped. "Or fly when you're not supposed to."

"We could play red-rover," Brooke wondered.

"I know what we could do!" Beau jumped in excitement. "We can play dodge ball!"

"Great! Just one problem," I replied. "We don't have a ball." Beau looked around.

"We could use that rock," he pointed.

"Sure, you try that and see what happens," I sighed.

"Ok! I will. Who wants to play with me?" Surprisingly he got a few takers. The group of boys ran behind the house to start their game.

Brooke jumped up and stood in front of the remaining relatives.

"How about we have a race?" She concluded. "We can go as far as that hill out there."

"That might be too far away," Beth warned.

"I wanna race!" Lindy exclaimed. "Can we, Ben? Please?"

"Yeah, come on Ben!" I sat up against the front porch while flipping my quarter. My eyes were half shut and I was about to fall asleep in this boring place.

"Ok fine!" I grumbled. "But you better stop the "dodge ball" game. Eventually, we rounded up a group to race. Brooke, Beau, Birch, Bruno, and Lindy all wanted to race. I had to race with Lindy since she was too young to race by herself. Everyone else would race in the second round.

"I wanna take Courage, too!" Lindy said as she ran over to the little dog. She grabbed Courage in her arms and ran over to the racing stand. Courage howled in fear.

"Uhh, Linds, I don't think he wants to race very much."

"Yeah he does! He'll like flying. I know it."

"Umm, whatever. Ok, is everybody ready?"

"Yes!" My relatives announced together.

"Nooo!" Courage howled.

"Ok, thennnnnnn...GO!" Immediately, everyone took off into the sky. I held Lindy's hand, and in her other arm, she grasped onto Courage, who was yelling and hollering the whole time! His eyes widened like frying pans. Beau was ahead at first, and it looked like he was going to win, until suddenly, I noticed something in the sky.

Lindy and I slowly came to a stop. I called for my cousins and brother to slow down. It took a while for Beau to stop but eventually, everyone stopped. We looked up at the strange object floating in the sky. It was black, white and red. Zooming at several miles per hour, the ship directed its attention towards us. I gasped when I noticed it flying towards us.

"It's a UFO!" Bruno cried.

"It's coming after us! Everyone hit the ground!" It was too late. The ship soared above us leaving a huge trail of exhaust around us. Everyone coughed and wheezed and…coughed.

"Hey!" I called. "Where is…" I couldn't even say anything. The force of the ship through us off course. I couldn't see anything, and eventually, everyone came hurdling to the ground.

I coughed louder as I tried to pick myself up off the ground. The fall hurt…hurt more then it usually did. I looked around weakly, and tried to get up. My legs were wobbly and weak.

"Is everyone ok?" I looked around and saw a pile of kids around me.

"Oh, my aching everything," Birch whined.

"What just happened?" Brooke asked while rubbing her head. Courage was lying on his stomach with his fur ruffled up and moaning painfully.

"Why do I feel like I just got knocked into a concrete building?" Beau asked dizzily.

"It's called falling," I answered. I rubbed the back of my head, which was bleeding pretty bad. _Wait a minute_…I thought.

"Where's Belinda!" Everyone looked around, but the little four year old was nowhere in sight.

"Something's fishy," Courage began. "Or my name is Ronaldo…and it's not."


	9. Chapter 9

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 9

"I can't believe we have to use a payphone…a PAYPHONE! Who uses those anymore?" Bruno complained. He through his hands in the air with an angry expression on his face.

"Oh, get over it," Brooke corrected. "We have more things to worry about then using a payphone."

"Can someone explain to me why there's a random payphone sitting in the middle of this dustbowl?" I questioned. I didn't care for an answer though. At this point, I was felt pretty prepared for anything.

"Maybe it grew rocket extensions and flew away from a highly populated city. The people in that place where cranky, loud, and obnoxious. They kept yelling into his receiver for so long, that he couldn't take it anymore! Now he resides here, where nobody will bother him again….until now. Being a payphone is a burdened life."

"Only you, Birch," Brooke replied while shaking her head side to side.

"Well, at least it pays well," Birch shrugged.

"The rocket extension thing is lame," Beau whined. "I bet it's haunted!"

"No, it's magic," Bruno broke in.

"What do you think it should be, Ben?" Beau asked.

"I don't care! Just give me some change, please!"

"We don't have any change," Beau responded. He stuck his whole hand inside his jean pockets (that takes skill, for us) and pulled them inside out. No money. Just lent.

"I might have something," Birch announced. He held out his fingerless hand and out shinned a nickel and a dime.

"Ok," I retorted, while grabbing the change. "Fifteen cents. Better than nothing."

"That won't even get us five minutes, Ben," Brooke muttered.

"Well, then do you have any change Miss Pessimistic?" I snapped.

"As a matter of fact, I do. And Miss Pessimistic? Really Ben? Really? You couldn't have thought of anything better than that? I'm ashamed. Yeah, it's not like our life is on the line. It's not like my sister is missing and all of us have no idea where we are without our powers! So we can totally worry about bad come backs!"

I sighed in frustration. I was just as mad as she was about Belinda, and I'm sure everyone was getting a little edgy at this point. Brooke dug through her pocket eagerly, and pulled out five pennies.

Brooke had a smirk across her face as she handed me the coins.

"See, collecting sidewalk change does pay off!" She laughed. I rolled my eyes, and collected the money.

"Right, anyone got anything else?" I called. Courage hopped up, and dug his paw into the fur by his leg. He pulled out a nickel, and handed it to me.

"Thanks," I murmured. "But we still only have…Oh wait!" I just remembered the quarter I was flipping at the farm house. I grabbed the coin out of my pocket, and counted the change.

"Ok, we have fifty cents. That's enough for one call. Who should we talk to?"

"Bari?" Brooke suggested.

"Naw, she never picks up her phone." I corrected.

"She'll answer a text."

"Ok, yeah, you go ahead and try to text on a payphone."

"I'm just trying to help, Ben! Do you know Beth's number? She might pick up."

"Ummm…yeah, I think so." I placed the coins inside the machine, and began dialing the numbers. Waiting patiently, I could hear Beth pick up the phone and say, "Hello?"

"Hey, Beth! It's Ben. Listen, we're -"

"Ben! Where the heck are you guys? It's almost lunch time, and Uncle Boomer already came out to ask where you guys are! When are you coming back?"

"Well, that's the problem…I don't know if we are coming back…You see we -"

"What? What do you mean you're not coming back? You guys can't just camp out there all day. What am I supposed to say? The parents are already concerned because of the weird ship…"

"Listen, Beth, I'll explain everything if you'd just let me…wait, did you say a ship?"

"Ummm…yeah! What did you think I said? Ben, what's going on?"

"Ok, was the ship weird looking?"

"Extremely."

"Was it black and red?"

"Yeah. What does this have to do with anything?"

"Ok, so while we were racing, that exact same ship flew past us, and we got caught in the exhaust."

"So what?"

"There must have been something in the exhaust. When we came down, all six of us didn't have our powers!"

"What? How did - " Suddenly, the phone cut off. A long ringing noise was all that could be heard.

"What the - ? Ahhhhhhh! I need more change!"

"We don't have anymore," Beau shouted.

"Well, now what are we supposed to do?"

"Trust our survival instincts and try to walk all the way back?" Bruno proposed.

"No, that's a lame idea," I answered. "We need to find Belinda, then trust our survival instincts!"

"We're all gonna to die," Brooke sighed, as she slammed her face into her palm.

Suddenly, Courage pointed to a figure on the horizon and shouted with fear.

"Wha…?" Everyone turned around to face the figure. A dark blue dog with black paws stood against the horizon. She was silent and looked at us like we were her prey.

"Ok," I Beau whispered. "Courage? Friend of yours?" Courage shrugged and shook his head.

"I wish!"


	10. Chapter 10

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 10

"Ben? Ben! He hung up on me!" I complained. "How dare he?_ Humph!_" After slamming the phone shut, I slumped against the wall, trying to figure out what to do next. My cousin and I were standing on the front porch of the old farm house. "I can't believe him sometimes."

Hi, I'm Beth. Yes, I'm just one of many. There's about fourteen of us in all, and I happen to be the oldest girl. However, my cousin Ben happens to be the oldest of us all. Actually, he does a pretty good job of it, being the oldest that is, until he just randomly decides to loose his mind!

"What did he do this time?" Bari asked. Bari's the closest cousin to my age, and practically my best friend. We do everything together!...at least when we can. We even had our tenth birthday party on the same day, though I'm a little older than she is, but only by a few months. Oh, and Bari's also the oldest daughter of Buttercup and Butch.

"He said that they got caught in the exhaust of that UFO thing we just saw, and everyone lost their powers!"

"What?" Bari looked at me with wide eyes. "You're kidding, right?…he _has_ to be kidding."

"He sounded serious," I told her, shaking my head in confusion. "And why would he kid around about something like that?"

"Here, let me see your phone."

"He hung up on me before I could ask him anything else." I answered. Despite my doubt of ever reaching Ben again, I handed Bari the phone, and she began to search through my contact list. After pressing the send button, Bari levered the device up to her ear and gazed angrily into the distance.

"I'm going to give him a piece of my mind…."

Bari is not the one to anger during situations like this. I love her, but she can have some anger issues…and it wouldn't hurt to learn a few lessons on patience either. Ben is her older brother, and she never tolerates any of his stupidity. Well, maybe I'm being sort of harsh today, but hey! Don't all families do this?

"He's not answering! What's his problem? Ok, that's it! I'm going after him." Bari prepared herself to take off into the air, but I skipped over just in time to stop her.

"No! Bari, don't. We have no idea where they are, and the last thing we want is for more kids to go missing."

"We won't go missing," Bari interjected. "All we need to do is just fly around the plain and find them."

"But what if we don't find them! What if _we_ get lost?"

"We won't get lost! We have our cell phones, and who gets lost out here?" Bari spread out her arms and looked all around the grimy plain. Unfortunately, she was right. You had to be pretty lost to lose your way out here. Everything is so level; you could see a mouse from a mile away.

"Look," I began, trying to clear my head. "If this is really a joke, than Ben will come back, and so will the others. If not, then we'll go out to find them…but not now!"

"Why not?" Bari placed her hands onto her hips this time, demanding an explanation for her plan to be denied.

"Because if we leave right now, we'd have to leave Brett in charge, and we all know what will happen if we do that." I moaned.

Bari growled in frustration as she spoke. "Ok, I guess your right, but what are we supposed to do until they come back?"

"We'll just cover for them, and they can pay us back later. If they don't show up after lunch time, then we'll go after them. The most important thing right now is that we find them before our parents do." Bari nodded quietly and stomped off the porch when the plan was settled.

"Ugh, I can't have a normal vacation because of that stupid brother of mine!"

I rolled my eyes irritably as she stomped past the comfort of the shade. Bari seemed to like making things difficult. I began to wonder if my cousins really were in danger. After all, it is unlike them to play pranks like this, at least at this time! I didn't know how we were going to keep this from our parents, anyways.

Uncle Boomer would be easy, and Uncle Butch probably wouldn't care, but my dad is a little more suspicious, and so is my mother.

I didn't have time to think after that. The screen door to the farm house creaked open and slammed against the front wall.

"Hey kids, it's lunch time." My uncle announced.

"Woo! Food," Brett cheered as he threw his hands in the air, and clumped up the porch like a champion. Brother's never cease to annoy. I folded my arms casually and walked up behind the remaining children, trying to keep my head down in order to avoid eye contact. My uncle stood in the doorway allowing the kids to enter.

"What have you guys been up to?" he asked curiously.

"Ummm, nothing!" I answered in a hurry. I must admit, my response was quick and you could tell I was trying to hide something, but it seemed like enough for my uncle Boomer, so it's good enough for me.

As we made our way into the kitchen, I saw Uncle Butch leaning against the wall. He seemed relaxed, but his face immediately changed when he watched us enter the house.

"Wait a minute…" he began. "I only see half of my kids…and the missing half is the boy half…Bari, what's going on?"

"Oh…nothing."

"Where are your brothers?" I froze in my tracks when I heard the conversation. Nothing could be worse than this!..At least at this moment.

"They're just outside, but they'll come back in a minute. They might take a while, but they'll come back."

"What are they doing?"

"Just…stuff." Bari walked away as quickly as possible after her father stopped interrogating. This was going to be a little harder than I thought. _Ok, guys. If this is a joke, it isn't funny! _


	11. Chapter 11

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 11

"Alright, nobody move! I bet she won't see us if we don't move," Beau whispered.

"It's a dog Beau, not a dinosaur," Brooke objected.

"But maybe she'll get bored of us if we stand still. Everyone, freeze!"

Immediately, the boys posed into the most awkward positions before freezing. Bruno stood on one foot while holding both hands in he air. The blue dog on the horizon tilted her head to one side in confusion.

"You guys look stupid! Stop trying to blend in," Brooke shouted in a whisper.

"No, we're trying to save our lives. We have to do this," Beau murmured. He wobbled slightly as he tried to keep balance. I stuck my hands in my pockets as I looked around, trying to find a way to escape.

Suddenly, Courage rested is paws on his head and howled in stress. The dog on the horizon growled with hostility and pounded down the desert hill towards our direction.

"Oh no! She's after us. Everyone, fly!" I ordered. Simultaneously, everyone jumped into the air with all their energy, trying to revive their escaped powers. To everyone's disappointment, we only stayed in the air for about a split second before landing back on our feet.

"Wha - ? Man, that's going to get annoying! Ok, everyone run!"

Nobody bothered to argue. Immediately, Courage and the rest of the group bounded out into the desert, too scared to look behind them. Brooke leaped ahead of us, with bursts of speed and energy. I never did quite figure out how she always manages to be the fastest.

Courage thumped behind us, hoping from one leg to the other with quickened pace, but our little friend was gaining fast. She was actually a lot smaller than I thought she was. Her strides were long and powerful, but her face was determined and vicious! The dog was dark blue, and had long wavy fur, with lengthy legs. She was rather small, and the tip of her tail was pitch black along with her paws. Courage shrieked in panic as he saw her advance behind him.

Suddenly, _thump_! I slowed down to look behind me, and saw Bruno lying on his stomach with dust twirling around his sides. He shrunk away as the rest of the group hurdled off in the opposite direction.

"No, stop! Wait for me," the boy demanded as he tried to stand on his feet. Let me tell you, are feet are not agreeable when it comes to running. The blue dog skidded to a halt by Bruno's side, snarling and growling as she disappeared into the uprising dust.

"Ahhh! No, guys help! She's going to eat me!" Bruno began to kick and badger his way out of the situation, but the brawl only stirred up more dust.

"No, Bruno!" Beau cried. After a few dramatic screams, Beau, Birch, and I hopped over to the mess, and jumped into the dust. The boys tackled the dog best they could, while Brooke pulled Bruno out of the fight. He was ruffled up, but wasn't hurt.

After clinching my fist, I knocked the blue dog in the mouth, and watched her bound backwards. She didn't take off, but instead pulled out a giant bazooka type machine from behind her. She aimed at me and the other three boys, and pulled a strange trigger at the bottom of the contraption.

"Duck!"

Everyone hit the deck without complaint, but Courage stood behind us, as still as a statue.

A weird ringing sound came from the gun, and blast! Red and blue lightning zapped from the bazooka, and the blue dog trampled away, taking the gun with her.

When we were sure she was gone, the boys slowly raised themselves from the ground, and looked around.

"That was awesome!" Beau cried enthusiastically. "Just like in the movies!"

"I know!" Bruno gasped. "There was a villain, and a laser gun, and action, and…and all sorts of stuff! It's like we were really super heroes for a minute. "

"And the best part is," Birch broke in. "We didn't even have our powers!"

"How is that a good thing?" I asked rubbing my head.

"Because we took down the dog without our powers! That makes us even more awesome!"

"She was just a dog, Birch," I snapped.

"Yeah, but still! We could never do that back at home. Best vacation _evaaaah_!"

I couldn't help but agree with Birch. That was the most I've ever felt like a superhero in my whole life. Yes, I know it's sad, but hey, first time for everything.

"Guys!" Brooke interrupted. "Could you please stop celebrating your victory and help me out over here! It's Courage, I think he's been hit."

The boys crowded around the purplish mutt, and tried to figure out the problem. He didn't have any injuries, any signs of pain, or any signs of being shot! He lied on the ground with his eyes peeping opened.

Moaning miserably, Courage got to his feet and wobbled forward. Suddenly, something pushed out from the base of his leg. Courage gasped, and shouted in fear, as a third leg sprouted from his body.

Everyone gasped and screamed as they cleared away from the mutant dog. Suddenly, another arm popped out from Courage's side. Part by part, the dog began to multiply, until a whole other dog pulled away from Courage's side, and stood full grown before me and my cousins.

There was silence.

"What just happened?" I asked. Before anyone could answer, the second beast lunged brutally in front of me. He growled and flashed his teeth viciously, before quickly taking off into the sweltering wilderness.

"Ok, that was the weirdest thing I ever saw!" Brooke spat. She looked disgusted and scared. Courage stared blankly into the distance with his mouth agape. His face was full of utter shock as he thumped backwards on his back and screeched yet another exclamation of fear.

"That second dog looked exactly like Courage! Except he was _dark_ purple," Bruno reminded.

"I noticed that, and look at Courage!" Birch announced. "He's light pink!" Courage shot his head up and looked at his arms. They were light pink, like the opposite of his ferocious counterpart.

"Ok, something is seriously wrong here," I proclaimed. "The dark purple dog acted just like the blue one we saw earlier."

"Oh! Do you think someone's up to something?" Bruno asked excitedly.

"Yup," I responded.

"It would make sense with the ship…" Birch added.

"It's aliens! There are aliens in Kansas," Beau shouted joyfully.

"Noooooo," Courage howled with despair. "I've had enough of aliens already."

"Well, I don't quite think they're aliens…" I responded calmly. "Unless their kidnapping little dogs and separating them for their own plot to take over the world!"

"Yeah!" Bruno and Beau cried together.

"So does this mean we're going to figure out the mystery?" Birch asked hopefully. His eyes widened with energy.

"Yup, we definitely need to get to the bottom of this," I answered proudly. I knew my cousins were itching for an adventure. Hey, who was I to take it away from them? Being the oldest can be annoying, but it does have it's rewards.

"Alien hunt! Alien hunt!" Beau bellowed happily, while bouncing up and down with energy.

"Well, I've had enough! I wanna go home," Brooke complained.

"Oh, come on, Brooke!" I answered. "This might be the only time we can do this! Don't you want to figure out whose behind the whole separating scheme?"

"Oh, no! I'm not going anywhere near those jackals. I just want to find Lindy, and get back to the farmhouse."

"But that dog is probably the one who took Lindy," Birch supposed. "If we follow the blue dog's foot prints, we'll find out where she came from."

"And we'll find Lindy," I concluded while glancing at Brooke.

"We have no idea if anyone even took Lindy!" Brooke objected. "And I doubt it would be that dog."

"But there's always the chance that someone did take her. Brooke, come on! Belinda is your sister. Don't you want to get her back?"

"Yes, but I want to go to the farmhouse, get our parents, and then find Lindy."

"But we don't even know where the farmhouse is, and every minute we're gone, Lindy is all alone with those aliens," I convinced.

"Well, if we try to find where the blue dog is headed we'll be even more lost. Come on, Ben! We don't even have our powers. How do you expect us to save Lindy, stop some stupid alien mission, and get home without any of our powers? We're all by ourselves here?"

"Well I don't know, but we'll think of something."


	12. Chapter 12

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 12

"Ben! I hate you!"

Thunder bellowed fiercely over our heads, and rain drizzled the ground endlessly as we huddled underneath a scrawny little tree. Finally, we find something useful out here! Unfortunately, the tree barely had any leaves…or shelter, so we didn't necessarily "score" on this one. Figures

Everyone pressed their backs against the tree trunk, except for Bruno who curled himself up with Courage. Beau let out his hand as if he just realized it was raining.

"We'll think of something, huh?" Brooke stuttered, as she repeated the words I said earlier. She rubbed her hands against her arms, trying to get some warmth. We were all soaking wet, and cold from the water. Just when you think being in a desert could be a good thing, miracles happen! Rain was the last thing we expected.

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this. I can't believe I listened to you! If we did what I said, we'd be in the farmhouse right now, all cozy and eating Happy Plums. But nooooo! We had to listen to the older, wiser, cousin who knows exactly what he's doing. Ugh!"

I turned to Brooke, but I didn't actually see her. My wet hair was draped across my face and eyes.

"Hey, don't question my authority! And we can still make it out here. We're just not believing in ourselves hard enough." I responded sarcastically.

"Whatever, I just want to go home."

"What about Lindy?" I reminded. Courage began shivering as he curled up closer to Bruno. His eyes were widened and his teeth were chattering.

"Maybe we should go back," Birch shouted over the rain.

"But where do we go?" Beau asked.

"We could go find the payphone again," Bruno suggested.

"Not in the rain," Brooke objected. Courage sighed wearily, with his ears dropping sadly.

Geez, this is harder than I thought! Whenever I'm babysitting, I usually have Beth or Bari helping me.

At this time, one of them would bring up some amazing idea of how to play in the rainy day. Either that, or we go inside and have food. Actually, food sounds pretty good right about now.

"I'm hungry!" Bruno hollered. Speaking of food…

"Are you kidding? I'm so hungry I could eat my foot!" Birch complained.

"Well I'm so hungry I could eat my whole leg!" Bruno answered.

"Oh, shut up! I didn't even have breakfast this s'morning," Brooke concluded.

"Hey, I'm so hungry, I can't even remember the last time I ate!" Beau exclaimed.

"Beau, we've only been gone for a few hours. You ate breakfast remember? Does twelve pancakes sound familiar?" Brooke scoffed.

"Oh yeeeaaah…" Beau remembered.

"Well, I could eat all of you! Now stop whining and get over it."

Courage rolled his eyes, until he saw something skipping over the rain puddles beyond the tree. His ears pricked forward at a strange figure. It resembled that of a four legged animal.

"What?" I questioned. Courage jumped to his feet and hobbled over to a figure piercing through the dim light of the rain. Water poured from the clouds and soaked the little hound from ear to tail, as he slowly exited the shelter of the tree.

"Hey, where you going?" I wondered. I struggled to my feet and followed Courage out into the open, but the rain was starting to lighten up at that point. Courage seemed determined, but the figure turned around, and galloped off in the opposite direction.

The figure was small, but graceful, like a doe. Courage followed eagerly, as if the animal would bring us to shelter. We could tell she was real, because of the drops of water that flew off the ends of her fur.

"Hey guys!" I called. "Come check this out!" I stuck my hands into my soggy pockets and waited for the rest of the group to follow, but unfortunately, the wait was a little longer than I wanted it to be. A few minutes went by, and by that time I was drenched with water.

"Not cool, guys! I'm serious here."

Beau trotted out in less than a few seconds after that comment. He looked up at me with water dripping off his cheeks.

"Sorry it took me so long. Brooke wanted me to stay underneath the tree. So, did Courage find the aliens?"

"He's about to. Come on, we need to follow him. Get the others!"

It didn't take long for us to figure out where the animal was heading. After a few minutes or so, everyone stopped. Courage placed his paws in front of his mouth with fear. The figure we were following pranced up to a weird plane, parked in the middle of the landscape. This ship was epic! It looked just like a rocket designed straight out of a science fiction movie.

The figure ran up a platform, which led into the ship, and stopped midway across. She turned around and starred at us, as if she wanted everyone to follow her, and she blinked kindly, and nudged towards the entrance as she padded away.

After a few seconds, I looked both ways and tried to walk up the platform, but something pulled me back.

"Are you crazy?" Brooke shouted. "You don't know what's up there. How do you know somebody isn't going to just come out and take us? We don't have our powers, Ben, remember?"

"Hey Brooke, calm down." I answered, pulling back my arm. "And how can I forget about our powers? I think she wants us to follow her inside."

"No, Ben! It could be a trap, devised by the aliens themselves." Beau panicked.

"Well, maybe they're friendly aliens. Besides, Lindy could be in there."

"Alright! We found the aliens!" Bruno rejoiced. "But what if they try to take us just like they took Lindy?"

"If they take one, they have to deal with the rest," I smiled. Bruno smiled excitedly, and loped up to the platform. Courage hopped up the platform, behind us.

"This is so stupid. I just know I'm going to die. If I die, you're not invited to the funeral, Ben!" Brooke murmured.

"Hey, why do you blame everything on me? Nothing's happened yet, _remember_?"

"Shut up!"


	13. Chapter 13

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 13

I have to admit: it was creepy inside the aircraft, but at least it was dry…and warm. We looked around the entire area, but there were no signs of aliens…or Lindy. However, the whole place was brightened with weak florescent lights, as if they were about to go out, and tables stood everywhere, with chemicals, paper, tools, and all sorts of scientific stuff.

It was like entering a science lab, but no scientists. There were all sorts of different sections on the airship. One corner looked like it was made for holding animals. Another section looked like it was built for storing chemicals and solutions.

"Wow, these aliens are pretty advanced," Brooke commented.

"They'd have to be," Birch retorted. "If these extra terrestrial life forms could figure out how to travel to another galaxy before human beings, they'd have to be extremely advanced….even more advanced than us!"

Yeah, Birch is the smart one if you haven't noticed. I looked around, but everything looked pretty human. Even the weirdest stuff there wasn't completely unbelievable for a person to have. It was like I expected some sort of creepy eerie feeling, something deep inside my head that said "this isn't human!"

Oh well, I guess that's why they say "don't know it until you see it…" or something like that…

"Ok, why don't you guys go look over there by the animals. Maybe someone put Lindy there."

There wasn't much time to search. Before I could say anything else, Courage gasped, and ran to my side. He began babbling, and hopping, as he pointed to a strange object standing in the middle of the room.

All of a sudden my cousins and brother ran to my side, and hid behind my back. I tried to act casual…and figure out what they were so freaked out about, but it was a little more challenging than I thought.

Suddenly, it hit me! The figure stepped out of the shadows and revealed herself as the blue dog who chased us away, after we crash-landed from the race.

Courage screamed in paranoia as his fur spiked up, and his ears shot into the air.

"Wait, you?" I gasped. Beau and Bruno peaked out from behind me. The she-dog nodded carefully and smiled warmly, but there was something different about here. She wasn't indigo anymore like she was in the desert. Instead she was pure white, like snow, and had a dark spot on her back.

Her face was kinder too, and she didn't have that frightening appearance, like the blue dog. _A twin sister maybe?_

"Yes, it is me," she barked softly. "But please don't be alarmed, young ones. I'm not the same dog who attacked you at in the open... Well, that is only half true." The dog lowered her head humbly when she finished speaking.

"Wait a minute. I'm confused!" I proclaimed. "Who are you? And what the heck is going on around here?"

"Do you remember the blue dog that chased you in the open land?" She replied. "Well, that blue dog is me."

"Wait, what?" Brooke interjected.

"Ok, now I'm really confused!" I announced calmly.

"So, you're the alien?" Beau asked.

"Skye? Is that you?" A new voice called.

Suddenly, furniture and equipment started moving around from the back of the ship. Brooke jumped back a bit, and, as ashamed as I am to admit it, I jumped back a little, too.

"What's all the commotion?" From behind a shelf, a strange person entered the room wearing a long lab coat. He had long hair and a beard, as if he'd been here for days. His voice was calm, but he looked tired and worried.

At the sight of us, a new look came to his face, but he turned his attention to the white dog before approaching us.

"Who are these kids, Skye? And what are they doing here? They shouldn't be running around this far into the prairie lands."

"These children were found by my Anti, Professor," Skye responded. "I led them here before the storm took place."

"I see," answered the "professor", while stroking his beard and nodding. "What happened to them? Were they antied themselves?"

"I'm afraid so. Their companion was purple before he was antied." Skye nodded towards Courage, who was still light pink. The hound blushed in embarrassment, and chuckled nervously.

"We need to do something to help them," Skye ordered. "I think they've lost one of their own."

"Yeah! We have," Brooke cute in. The professor and Skye immediately turned their attention to the young teenager, but Brooke shied away instantly as soon as she saw their glances. "Well, I mean, we did lose someone, but I doubt you guys have her, because I'm sure you're not kidnappers or anything. I mean, I'm not saying that you guys look dangerous, but it's just you never know, and she is only four. Well, no I mean she is four, but she didn't run off or anything…"

I sighed angrily as Brooke rambled on. This would definitely be the time for her wordiness to be spared.

"Umm, Brooke, it's ok," I interrupted. "What she means to say is that we're looking for our little cousin. She looks like her except smaller and…quieter." I pointed my thumb to Brooke as I spoke. "Have you seen her?"

Skye grew a concerned look, and glanced up at the professor.

"Oh no," he murmured while placing his hand on his forehead. "I wonder if Doctor Boron found her first."

"Maybe he sent my anti out to distract the family," Skye added.  
>"That would explain why she was attacking them."<p>

"Wait, hold on a minute," I ordered. "What's going on? Where's Lindy?"

Suddenly, the professor looked up in shock, as if he just remembered something.

"Oh! Forgive me. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Professor Protista, and I've been working in this area of Kansas in order to try out my new invention."

"Uhhh…cool…My name's Ben. This is my brother, Beau."

"Hi!" Beau greeted energetically. "I've never met real aliens before!"

"Aliens?" The professor asked in bewilderment. He raised one of his eyebrows while giving an unusual look to Beau.

"Uhhh, and this is Birch and Bruno. They're brothers also…and my cousins."

"Hey!"

"'Sup?"

Skye looked at the two red-heads with surprise in her eyes, as if she never heard the slang before.

"And this is Brooke…my other cousin."

"It's nice to meet you," Brooke said with a welcoming smile.

"And this is Courage," I placed my hand on Courage's head and ruffled his ears while introducing.

"Hmmm, large family," Professor Protista muttered.

"Oh, trust me," Brooke began. "There are way more where this came from."

"Interesting," The professor responded quietly. I was really beginning to hope he liked kids. "Where exactly did you all come from?"

"Well….that's kind of a long story. Have you ever heard of the Powerpuff girls?"

"The Powerpuff girls?" the professor repeated. His eyes lit up at the words.

"Ummm, yeah."

"Of course I have!" The professor stepped back, revealing an entire wall covered with framed newspaper articles and posters.

"Whoa…" I gasped. Everyone walked over to the wall, and examined the collection of old articles. Several pictures of the Powerpuff girls filled the walls. Newspapers and magazine snap shots hung in frames all the way to the ceiling.

"This is awesome!" Brooke cried in astonishment. "You must have been collecting these for years!"

"In fact I have. The girls were an amazing invention. I have long praised Professor Utonium for his genius, and his marvelous idea. Sugar, spice, and everything nice? Who would have guessed!"

I rolled my eyes tolerably, and gazed at a picture of Buttercup getting ready to fight a monster. She had an extremely determined look on her face, and flew with such speed and flexibility; it was hard to believe it was really my mother. I barely got to see her fight anymore.

Professor Protista approached me with his hands behind his back.

"I know the Powerpuff girls are before your time," he started. "But you seem to have some sort of admiration for Buttercup."

"Yeah," I replied. "She's my mom."

The professor smiled and nodded with approval, as if he knew that was coming. "It's very rare for children your age to even know about heroes like this, let alone be related to them. You're very fortunate to have such an honorable mother." He continued.

"Thanks, but now that we know you're a fan, we need to know if you can help us. Belinda is Bubbles' youngest daughter, and she's missing now. We need to get her back before we leave. Do you have any idea how we could do that?"

Professor Protista nodded once again, but this time there was some sort of despair on his face. "That's what I need to talk to you all about. Only recently I've come to this area of Kansas to work on my latest invention."

The professor held out his hand to a table covered with building material and several blue prints. A gun stood up on the table, which looked really similar to the one that the blue dog shot Courage with in the prairie.

"Hey! That looks like the rocket launcher that blue dog shot at us when we were being attacked!" Beau shouted, pointing at the gun.

The professor invited us to the table. I followed gingerly, and the kids wandered behind me. Courage thumped over to the edge and jumped on a stool to look.

"I started this invention several years ago," the professor began. "Its objection is to separate the chromosomes of any living creature it's directed towards! My first copy only separated the physical features of a specimen, but my newest model will separate the most dominant personalities in a specimen, and turn them into two separate living creatures!"

"That must've been what happened to Courage!" Brooke exclaimed. Courage nodded in agreement, as Professor Protista continued his explanation.

"Of course, there are a few physical side effects, such as color change, but the result is something beyond the fields of science! This ray gun which you see before you actually reverses the results of the separating ray." The professor pointed to the gun on the table.

"That's pretty awesome, but I have one question," I commented.

"Yes, what's that?"

"Why exactly did you make this? You're never going to use it. Why create it if you can't use it?"

"What is the point of cloning a sheep? Or creating flying cars when we already have airplanes, and automobiles?"

"I dunno. 'Cause it's awesome," I answered.

"Exactly!"

"So does this mean you're not aliens?" Beau asked innocently.

"Aliens? Far from it my friend, but we do have some serious news to discuss."

"When Professor Protista came to work in this area, a rival was also anxious to create the invention." Skye explained.

"Yes," continued the professor. "My old partner Doctor Boron, claims that he was the true discoverer of the invention's operation, and unfortunately, believed he wasn't getting enough credit for the ray gun. Because of this, he stole the first copy of my separating ray, and followed me into the Kansas plains."

"Why would he do that?" Birch asked.

"I'm not quite sure why, but more than likely to keep an eye on me to make sure I don't create another separating ray. Unfortunately, Dr. Boron has been testing the device and perfecting it ever since he arrived in Kansas. He means to present it to the public once he tests it on a human being.

"Now, he's only been testing the ray on animals." The professor directed his glance to Skye, who lowered her head in shame.

"Wait, did you just say he needs to test it on a human being?" I asked.

"Yes," responded the professor. "It's never been used on a person before."

Immediately, I turned to my family and Courage. "Guys, I think we just found Lindy."

"Oh my gosh! He wouldn't…"

"I'm afraid he would," Professor Protista objected. "When he found you all in the desert, Lindy might have been the only one he could snatch."

"And he might have sent my anti out to get her," Skye added.

"See, I told you, Brooke."

"This isn't a joke, Ben! He's going to experiment on Belinda! We have to get her back."

"Professor? Umm…do you mind if I call you that? Our grandfather is a professor and we just call him that, too."

"No, go right ahead."

"Ok, thanks! Professor, do you have any idea where Dr. Boron might be hiding?"

"Well, there is a large cave just west of here. Once again, Dr. Boron likes to keep an eye Skye and me. There is a possibility he could be hiding out there for the season."

"Ok, sounds good! Thanks for your help, Professor. Come on guys, let's go."

"Wait a minute! Ben, really? You really think we can just barge in some random guys airship and be like "where's Lindy, we want her back?"

"Well….it sounds kind of stupid when you put it like that."

"Because it is stupid!"

"Wait, have you children not inherited the powers of your parents?" asked the professor.

"We do have powers, but they disappeared when we got caught in the exhaust of some airship. It looks like this one, except it's red and black. That's how we crashed."

"That's strange. I've never heard of that before." The professor began to pace in front of his table, thinking intently on the matter.

Skye walked over to Courage and sat beside him. She was trying to figure something out herself, or so it seemed.

"For about a month, I've been disconnected with my anti. We've tried for all this time to catch her, but she keeps escaping."

"I can see why," Courage answered, while rolling his eyes nervously.

"When the separating ray is used on an animal, it usually separates the negative character traits from the positive ones. We believe Dr. Boron is collecting the negative anti creatures, and using them to his own advantage," Skye explained.

Courage gasped. "That's not gonna turn out well."

"No, it isn't at all. It's hard to see yourself like that isn't it? All of the negative traits you carry? Anger, Aggression, fierceness…it's hard to believe that it's part of you."

Courage nodded while whining sadly. "All I want is to get back to normal so I can go home."

"I feel the same…" Suddenly, Skye jumped to her feet. "You know what?"She asked. "I'm going with you. We can capture our anti selves, and save Lindy."

Courage looked up with happiness gleaming in his eyes.

"Sure, why not? We need all the help we can get!"

"Ok, that settles it. We're going after Dr. Boron," I announced.

"So…we're still going to be heroes?" Bruno asked with excitement.

"Yeah, sure," Brooke replied. "If we're still alive."


	14. Chapter 14

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 14

"Oh yeah! We're gonna go find Dr. Boron, and kick his butt! Oh yeah, 'cause we are the awesomeist! And we want our cousin back…" Beau sang merrily.

As we walked on through the barren desert, Beau jumped in front of us, expressing his excitement by pretending to be a spy…while…singing.

Skye and Courage pranced behind us. It was the second day of us being stranded in the Kansas plains, but the rain finally stopped!

"How are we even going to find this guy?" Brooke asked.

"I dunno. But I have a feeling he's….in that direction!" After peering over the horizon slowly, I finally pointed to a dark cave peering in the middle of the plain.

Brooke looked at me with shock. "How did you know he was there?"

"Professor Protista said earlier that Dr. Boron liked to stay situated at a safe distance away from us, in order to keep an eye on our more recent projects," Skye responded intellectually.

"Ummm…Yeah, let's go with that," I agreed while rubbing the back of my head. I honestly saw the cave by luck.

"Ben, how are we going to get over there? It's like, six miles or something!" Bruno exclaimed.

"Well, we could just walk…" Birch suggested.

"What are we going to do once we get there?" Brooke questioned. "That's what I would like to know."

"Hmm…Just wing it!" Courage advised.

"Naw, it's all good. I got a plan…" I announced.

"Well that's a first," Brooke scoffed.

"Alright, a plan! Now we can be like real heroes!" Beau celebrated.

"Yeah, I know….I just really wish we had our powers right now."

Suddenly, a bright red Ferrari dashed in from the distance, and skidded to a stop once it saw us standing in its way. Courage hobbled out of it's way, and jumped behind my legs.

A young Chinese adult sat at the steering wheel shaking his fist angrily while honking the horn.

"Watch where you're going, you fool!" He spat.

As we stood there looking at him…I suddenly thought of another plan. Wow, I'm on a roll today! Thank you, sense-deprived Kansas survival techniques!

"You're not supposed to be driving yet, Ben!" Brooke nagged endlessly.

I sat at the driver's seat of the red Ferrari while Brooke claimed shot gun beside me. Birch, Bruno, and Beau sat in the back seat, and Courage and Skye, sat on the floor.

Don't worry about the car owner…we tied him up and stuffed him in the back of the trunk. Since the key was left in the ignition, everyone buckled up, and we headed towards Dr. Boron's weird airplane thing.

"Did you hear me, Ben?"

"Yeah I heard you!"

"Then why aren't you listening?"

"Because I don't care!"

"Ben! Come on, this isn't safe. You don't even have your permit yet, and you're not even driving with a suitable adult."

"Hey, what do you think is going to happen? There aren't any police out here, and as far as I care right now, Beau is my suitable adult."

"Hey guys, check this out!" Beau cried. "This guy wears pink flip flops." Beau demonstrated his excitement by placing an empty shoe box on top of his head.

"Look at me! I'm a crazy robot man!"

"Hey Beau," I interrupted. "Did you tie up the dude in the way Dad showed us?"

"Yup!"

"Awesome."

Eventually, we approached the weird cave, though it was kind of strange how the cave was just sitting there with no real reason. But after everyone exited the car, we walked inside, and found a huge red and black airship parked in the middle of the cave.

It was exactly the same one we saw while we were flying in our race.

"Ok, so how do we get in here?" Birch asked, as we stood in front of the large airship. Everyone looked up in awe…or disgust.

Courage hopped over to the side of the ship, and knocked his paw in the middle of the side like it was a door.

Suddenly, a large platform, like the one on Professor Protista's aircraft, dropped from it's spot, and landed right on top of Courage.

"Alright! It came down. Good job, Courage," Beau praised. "Now we can go inside."

Courage crawled out from underneath the platform, weakly trying to stand to his feet, and laughed in response with his teeth falling from his mouth.

"Ok, guys. Now, this is what we're gonna do. First of all, everyone except for Courage and Skye will walk into the airship, and distract Dr. Boron…or whoever else is in there. Then the dogs will sneak in behind us, and look for Lindy, and their anti selves."

"But what happens if Dr. Boron catches us?" Bruno inquired.

"Don't worry. Like I said before, I gotta plan!"

**Hey guys, sorry it is taking me **_**forever **_**to get these chapters uploaded. It's very difficult to write when you have three little children to watch over, but don't worry! I am determined to get this story finished by the end of summer. **

**Anyways, I'm mostly writing this random authors note to encourage you to read some of the R. Sister's one shots. They are really awesome. I mean really **_**really**_** awesome, and she deserves more credit than she gets. Thanks for your patience everyone. Like I said more chapters soon!**

**-L. Sister **


	15. Chapter 15

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 15

Carefully, the others and I snuck inside of the ship, looking around cautiously as we went. You never know when something is going to pop out. At least that's what happens in movies.

"This is by far, is the strangest invention I've ever seen." A voice echoed from across the area.

"Hey guys," I whispered. "Come check this out." Immediately, my cousins and brother snuck up by my side and peered over the corner of the airship.

A strange dude, with short black hair, and a long lab coat stood casually by a giant bird cage ascending from the ceiling.

"That must be Doctor Boron," Brooke suggested quietly. Dr. Boron observed the bird cage intently at a safe distance. While holding his hands behind his back, he stalked around the construction, until we were able to see what was inside the cage.

Belinda sat in the middle of the cage with tears falling from her face.

"Hey, he's got Lindy in there," I murmured.

"Never before have there been such extravagant powers contained in one specimen. If I can figure out how to drain these powers, there's no limit to what I can do!"

"Go away you meany!" Belinda sobbed. "My Daddy's going to come and get you, and you won't be happy."

"Once I tweak the separating ray, it'll drain the powers from this young girl, and we'll add it to our supply," the Doctor explained. He nodded his head towards a large cylinder tube completely filled to the top with Chemical X.

Two dogs, one dark blue, and the other dark purple stood by the tube with vicious glares on their faces. Both of them resembled Skye and Courage perfectly.

"And those must be the dogs' anti selves!" Birch pointed.

"The separating ray is completely successful when it comes to animals!" Dr. Boron declared.

"And that must be the alien," Beau inserted while pointing towards the doctor.

"Beau, you have the attention span of a grasshopper!" I mumbled.

"What did you do to Courage, you doody head?" Belinda ordered in fear.

"Hush!" Demanded Dr. Boron. "You won't be speaking like that when I'm done with you. Anti-dogs! One of you guard the cage, while the other stays where he is. I have work to do elsewhere."

Immediately, the doctor picked up a clip board, and walked over to separate table, observing a half built invention. Once the coast was clear, I turned back towards the door where the dogs, stood.

"C'mon!" I allowed, while nodding my head. Courage and Skye raced towards me, ready for their assignments.

"Ok," I began.

"Wait, wait!" Beau disrupted. "Can I do it, Ben? Please?"

I sighed tiredly, but eventually agreed to Beau's whim.

"Yes," he whispered while doing a fist pump silently. "Ok, Belinda is in that cage, so one of you get her down, while the other one goes to that…lava lamp thing to get the Chemical X! We'll distract Dr. Boron."

"Sounds good to me," Courage agreed.

"Alright, let's go then," I concluded.

"Ben," Brooke began nervously. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah Brooke, it's cool. Watch this." Immediately, I jumped out from behind the corner, and shouted towards the table.

"Hey, Dr. Bozo! Check this out," I cried while my hands were cuffed around my mouth. When the doctor twisted around in confusion, I immediately, began waving my arms like noodles, for distraction.

"Olol, olol, olol," I muttered.

"Benny!" Belinda cried with excitement.

"What?" The doctor turned around with a startled fright, and glared once he saw me jumping around in the opened. "What the–.How did you get in here? No matter…I can make other use of you."

Suddenly, I saw Beau jump out of the hiding spot from the corner of my eye.

"Hey, Doctor Boring! How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

"Hey, where did you come from? That's logically impossible. Get over here, you!"

"Yay! You've come to rescue me," Lindy announced.

"Yo, Doc!" Bruno announced as the Doctor was approaching Beau. "Boogie, boogie, boogie!" Bruno began to dance senselessly, as the doctor rolled his eyes and paused in his attempt.

"Where are all you coming from?"

"Hello, Sir!" Birch began, while walking happily out from the corner. Brooke followed him reluctantly.

"Are you tired to of being an absolute failure as a cook?"

"What?" the doctor asked while raising one of his eyebrows.

"Are you fed up with burning cake after cake without any success? Do you want to make your second cousin a Mexican Wedding Cake, but don't have the confidence to attempt it? Well kiss those worries good bye! For a limited time, only, the Cooking Company that doesn't exist is here to offer you a product that will guarantee baking success!"

"Why do I find the places with all the crazy people," Doctor Boron murmured to himself, as he rubbed his hand across his head, not quite sure what to make of all this commotion. "These children must be related to that girl."

"Hey, Doc," I spoke up. The strange professor finally drew his attention towards me, and while my cousins were distracting him a second ago, I snuck towards his table, and snatched up the project he was working on.

"Look'in for this?"

"Wait a minute, put that down! It's extremely sensitive."

"Hey, Ben!" Birch called. "Let's play Adventures in Gallabore!"

"Uhh…Ok, I'm the…Squirrel in the back round and I just found the…magic stone that controls all the magic powers of the enchanted swamp."

"Hmm…enchanted swamp. Nice one," Birch nodded. As everyone contemplated the game, the twisted doctor guy advanced on me, eager for the half built ray.

"Gaaah," I grumbled in panic. "But this enchanted swamp dweller wants the stone so he can take over the universe. Birchwood, catch!"

Immediately, I threw the weird gun to Birch, who caught it effortlessly.

"Ah no," he complained. "An _enchanted_ swamp dweller? That's the worst kind of dweller." As the doctor ran over to Birch, the young red head gasped with alert, and tossed the machine over to Beau.

"Take it, Sir Beauregard Bunkley!" Immediately, Beau received the lazer as if it was the winning catch at a football game.

"Whoo-hoo! Touch down!...and will you stop calling me Bunkley?"

"That's it! I've had enough of this! Anti dog, attack!" Suddenly, Skye's anti jumped out of nowhere, and growled brutally at Beau.

"Oh, nice doggie!" Anti-Skye barked with fury, while saliva dripped down her teeth, threatening and sharp.

"Look out, Beau!" Lindy warned.

"Whoa! Ok, Ben you take it!" Beau passed me the gun with fear, but as I caught it, Anti-Skye pounced at me with frightening ability.

"Crud, crud, crud, crud, crud!" I exclaimed hastily. After turning around quickly, I bolted away as the dark blue anti panted after me, hot on my heals.

"Guys, a little help?"

Instead of help, Anti-Courage popped out of nowhere, and herded my family in the corner with me as if we were cattle. Suddenly, the Doctor advanced towards us, and I was beginning to wonder if this was such a good idea.


	16. Chapter 16

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 16

"Yeah, this wasn't exactly what was supposed to happen," I stated. While looking around at my cousins, all of us were tied to the giant cylinder tube filled with Chemical X. The two ends of the rope were tied off with a shoelace not.

"Yah know, this isn't exactly the right way to tie people up," I reminded.

"Silence!" Dr. Boron yelled. "I don't have any idea where you came from, but I do know one thing: you won't be here for long."

"Lame," I answered.

"Boo," Beau called after me.

"Ben," Brooke began. "If we don't get out of here alive, and Lindy never gets out, and if we the dogs never get their anti selves back, and we never leave Kansas, I just want you to know…THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

Before I could answer, I noticed Courage trying to unlock Belinda out of the bird cage. This would be a great opportunity for further distraction.

"Brooke, calm down!" I whispered in response. "I still have my plan, remember?"

"Well then do it!" Brooke commanded.

"Ok, here it goes…" I directed my attention to the doctor guy who was just about to leave. While taking a deep breath, I put my plan into action.

"…..You're a nerd!"

Dr. Boron turned around to look at me awkwardly, and raised one of his eyebrows in confusion. Suddenly, there was silence. All that could be heard was the boiling of the Chemical X inside of the tube.

"_That_ was your plan?" Brooke asked furiously. "All this time, that was your plan?"

"Well," I explained with nervous sweat running own my neck. "It was supposed to work a little different than that."

"I can't believe this!" Brooke blabbered. "We ran half way across Kansas, encountered a rapid dog with nuclear weapons, stole some guys car, and acted like idiots in front of a psycho doctor, just so you could call him a nerd?"

"Hold on a minute," Boron broke in. We all looked at him with surprise. "…I am not a nerd."

_Bingo_, I thought.

"Dude, you're not fooling anybody. You're such a nerd; your glasses are three times bigger than your eyeballs."

My cousins and brother began to giggle, as Boron looked insulted.

"These glasses were in style back then," he stuttered.

"Yeah," I replied. "Like ten years ago."

"Uwwwww," Birch and Bruno howled.

"Haha," Beau continued. "I got one! I got one! You're such a nerd; I bet you have the Star Trek theme song as your ringtone!"

Everyone began giggling again, as Dr. Boron began to get irritated.

"I'll have you know that I've only bought season one of that series!...and I don't even have a cell phone."

"Dude," Birch started. "You're such a nerd; I bet you got your mom an extension cord for her birthday!"

As the kids and I continued to tease Dr. Boron, I watched Courage hop over to the bird cage, and try to unlock the door. Lindy crawled towards door excitedly to greet her rescuer.

"Courage!" She yelped. "You've come! But you're all light."

"Shhhhh," Courage hushed. "Be quiet."

The shushing didn't help much. Anti Courage turned around to see what was going on, and immediately he charged towards his equivalent with anger.

Courage screamed with terror once he saw his copy heading towards him, and climbed up the bird cage aimlessly. Anti Courage jumped up on the bottom of the bird cage savagely, and followed the little hound to the rope that was holding the cage.

Lindy screamed as the dogs rattled the bars of the cage, and Courage shivered rapidly once he reached the end of the rope.

"Wow, talk about finding your inner beast," Courage commented, as he prepared himself for a rough jump.

Suddenly, Skye popped out of the corner, and knocked straight into Anti Courage. While wrestling him to the ground, Courage stared in amazement for Skye's bravery.

"Get the girl!" Skye ordered, while weakly pinning the brute to the floor.

Courage nodded, and unhooked the door of the cage, releasing frightened Lindy, as she whooshed out of the cage, and floated above the dogs.

"Wait, you had your powers the whole time?" Beau hollered.

"She won't for long," Doctor Boron added. "Anti dog, attack!"

Skye's anti self sprang into action at once, while flinging herself onto Courage and knocking him of the cage like before. While clawing and biting at her opponent, Courage found himself belly first on the floor completely battered by his challenger.

"Lindy!" I yelled urgently. "You have to help Courage!"

"But I'm scared!" Belinda whimpered, while wiping her eyes.

"You have super powers, Lins! Just…do something!"

Courage struggled helplessly through the fight until unexpectedly, a large microscope fell from the sky, and bonked the anti dog right on the head.

"No!" Cried the doctor. "Not my favorite microscope!"

We all looked up at Lindy with shock on our faces, while she hovered innocently where she was.

Courage squirmed away from the unconscious she dog, and ran towards the stairs.

"Courage!" Brooke screamed. "Get the Chemical X!" The dog nodded in agreement, and raced up the stairs hastily.

"That's it! I've had enough of this!" Boron shouted impatiently. While jogging away from the children tied up, Lindy dived down to our level, and began unraveling ropes in a hurry.

Courage reached the top of the cylinder container, which had a turning wheel twisted shut for the opening. With all his effort, the hound tried fearlessly to undo the lid, but before he could even breathe, his anti self met him at the top of the stairs.

Courage gasped with stress, and continued to loosen the top of the tube. Unfortunately, Anti Courage jumped onto the top with his copy, but Courage lost his grip on the lid, and soon his paws flew off the wheel, and whacked his anti right in the face.

Anti Courage yelped in pain, but Courage barely had any time to notice. Doctor Boron came out with a bazooka fastened in his arms, and pointed the weapon right at Courage.

"Whoa, is he serious?" Birch gasped.

"Where does this guy get all this stuff? Lindy, hurry up! Just pull that end right there!" I instructed.

Belinda squeaked with fear, but finally undid the ropes, which slipped off of us like string. Immediately, we jumped away from the tube, but Doctor Boron already had his weapon cocked.

Courage yelled once again from anxiety, but as he backed away from the top, Anti Courage, still distracted from the whack in his face, slipped from his spot, and slid off the top.

Courage gasped as his anti fell to the ground and thumped instantly into an unconscious slumber.

Before anything could be done, Boron shot his weapon up at the container, but the aim was a little off, and blew a whole right into the side of the tube.

"Hit the deck!" Bruno demanded. Everyone fell onto their knees, and leaned over the floor. Chemical X began to spill all throughout the ship, and on top of me and the others.

Once, the liquid level diminished a little, I lifted myself up, and tried to fly. Everyone else leaped to their feet, and stared in astonishment as Dr. Boron crouched onto a table, and Courage retreated from the cylinder tube onto the stairs before anything could happen. Skye leaped onto the bird cage, and remained untouched by the chemical X.

All of the excess radiation flowed outside of the ship, from the platform that remained opened. I lifted myself off the ground, and discovered that all my powers had returned.

"Hey guys! We have our powers back!" I announced. My brother hopped into the air with me, and shouted with excitement at receiving his abilities.

"Awesome!" He yelled. "Now we can defeat that guy!" Beau pointed to Doctor Boron, who tried carefully to tiptoe out of the airship.

"Yeah," Brooke agreed. "Let's get 'em!"

"Wait," Doctor Boron shouted with worry. "Before you do anything, who exactly are you people?"

"Who are we? We're the Power…ruff…no, Rowdy..ummm…hmmm, I dunno," I muttered.

"Fail," Brooke inserted.

"Well, we'll work on that! But for right now, we're just here to kick your butt!"

Instantly, everyone flew towards the doctor, and completely diminished our first villain! It was a great fight…except for the part were Beau hit me with the telescope, but that's beside the point!

After we made sure he was taken care of, Belinda flew off to get Courage, Brooke got Skye, and everyone zoomed out of the aircraft.

"Oh wait!" I paused. While everyone flew off, I stayed behind and grabbed the two unconscious anti dogs…and the half built machine that Doctor Boron wanted.

After we finished out task, everyone flew off, mission accomplished.


	17. Chapter 17

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 17

"You really stopped Dr. Boron, captured the anti dogs, and saved your cousin all without your powers?" Professor Protista asked with awe in his voice.

"Yup," Beau answered simply. "We're just awesome like that!"

"Beau," Brooke corrected quietly. "But we couldn't have done it without your help, Professor."

"Yeah," I agreed slowly. "And if you don't mind, we'd kind of like to fix our friend, now." I nodded my head to Courage, who stood in content with the half built machine fastened in his paws.

Courage handed the gun up to the professor, who took the invention gladly, and after setting the device on his work table, Protista turned to us with gratitude.

"If anyone needs to be thanking anyone, it should be me. I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't for you children! You bravely faced life and danger to help your friend, and to save your cousin. All I can say is that you mothers have truly raised you in their light."

"Is there anyway we can repay you?" Skye asked calmly.

"Uhh…yeah, you could fix our friend," I repeated. Courage nodded in concurrence.

"Oh yes of course!" The professor exclaimed. After turning around to his work table, he retrieved another strange invention, and called Skye to fetch Courage's anti self.

Skye returned with a kennel filled with the two anti dogs, gnawing savagely on the bars.

Skye trotted next to Courage, and prepared herself for the transformation as well.

"Alright Courage," Professor Protista began. "Are you ready to be restored?"

"Mmhmm, mmhmm," the hound mumbled.

"Alright, good!...Because I've never tested this thing out before. Here we go!"

Immediately, the professor shot out a beam of energy, which zapped Courage and Skye with sudden bursts of light. Suddenly, the two anti dogs were lifted through the kennel, and inverted right back into the original creature. Once the transformation was complete, Professor Protista let go of the lever, and placed his machine to the ground.

"Courage!" Lindy cried. "You're back to normal!" Belinda scurried towards her canine friend and wrapped her arms around him with joy.

"Yay!" Courage yelped while raising his hands victoriously in the air.

"Hey, Courage! You're purple again," Beau shouted. "It's a lot better than that icky pink color!"

"I see why they call you Skye," Courage barked while turning to his new friend. Skye was a brilliant shade of light blue, and the spot on her back, was now diamond white like a cloud.

The she-dog chuckled with amusement. "Yes, I was named as a puppy."

"Same here," Courage responded.

"Well, I can clearly see why they called you what they did, Courage," Skye whinnied warmly.

Courage grinned with appreciation, and Lindy giggled as she held him tighter.

"Ok, well. I think it's about time for us to be getting home," I finally announced.

"Awwww, no way!" Beau objected. "We just had our first super hero mission! We can't leave now? It'll ruin the moment!"

"Come on, Beau. We can't stay here all day. Hey Professor thanks for everything you did to help us! You too, Skye. We couldn't have gotten anywhere without your help."

"And thank you!" The Professor responded.

"Are you sure you'll be able to find your way back home?" Skye wondered.

"I think we'll be fine."

"I still don't understand why you're not surprised that Skye can talk," Protista commented.

"Well, we have a talking dog at home…and he had puppies. So this ain't nothing."

"Ahhh, I see. Well, I guess this is farewell!"

"I hope I can see you again, Courage," Skye began.

"Hey Courage, are you coming?" I asked before everyone took off.

"Yeah, maybe we will some day. I got to go. Good luck with everything!" Courage departed.

"You too."

As we all took off into the Kansas air, my cousins and brother, like always, couldn't keep quiet about their recent adventure.

"I can't believe we actually defeated our first villain!" Birch exclaimed. "Now we're like, real superheroes!"

"And without our powers, too!" Bruno exclaimed.

"But we're going to be in so much trouble when we get back!" Brooke complained. "I bet I'm never gonna go to Bari's house ever again! Or worse…I'll never leave my house again!"

"Well, once you tell your parents about your adventure, I bet they'll go easy on you," Beau encouraged.

"No Beau, that'll probably make it worse!"

"Well I know one things for sure," I inserted.

"What's that?" Birch and Lindy asked in unison.

"I'm so picking a better character to be in the Adventures of Gallabore."

Everyone giggled heartily. It's awesome when people like your jokes.

"I don't know, Ben. The squirrel seems to fit you," Brooke teased.

"Ehh, I dunno, it's just not working for me."

"Do you guys think I did a good job?" Lindy questioned nervously.

"Yeah, are you kidding?" Brooke asked in astonishment. Belinda was flying in the back with Courage in her arms. "If anyone's the hero here, it's you, Lindy!"

"Yeah, if it wasn't for you, Courage wouldn't have given us back our powers!" Beau explained.

"And we would have been crushed under that tube thing if you hadn't have let us loose!" Bruno added.

"And we never would have helped Professor Protista if you didn't get captured!" Brooke snickered.

"See, Lindy?" I concluded. "Even your mistakes are awesome. You're the true hero, here!"

Lindy giggled as she accepted everybody's admiration. We neared the farm house slowly, thinking about what would happen when our parents found us. I already knew what was coming, so before we landed, I approached my family.

"Ok guys, maybe we should just enter the house like nothing happened," I proposed

"What? What do you mean? We just stopped the bad guy, rescued the damsel in distress, and saved the day! What about our heroic homecoming?" Beau whined.

"Beau, hush! They'll hear you," Brooke scolded. "I agree with Ben, for once. We need to be careful."

After lowering ourselves to he ground, I nodded for my cousins to follow, and casually we entered the house.


	18. Chapter 18

R. L. Sisters

Chapter 18

We entered the house as normally as we could, and as soon as everyone was inside, we went into the kitchen to see Aunt Bubbles sobbing at the table. Miss Muriel was next to her, trying to comfort my Aunt with a cup of tea.

"There, there, dear. It'll turn our alright in the end," Miss Muriel cooed while wiping her own eyes on a handkerchief.

"I know," Bubbles whimpered. "But I just can't help but think this is my fault. I'm always in charge of the children, you see. And nothing like this has ever happened before! Oh, those poor children…" Aunt Bubbles continued to weep as I walked up behind her chair, with my hands in my pocket.

"But I'm sure they'll turn up soon. You're husband is out right now looking for them, and so is everyone else," Miss Muriel reminded. "Plus my Courage is with them. He'll keep them safe." Suddenly, Mrs. Bagge broke out in tears as well, at the thought of her little dog.

"Ehhh," Mr. Bagge growled from his spot at the counter. "If anything, they probably died of thirst out there."

"Eustace!"

Aunt Bubbles, overwhelmed by the thought, pushed her face into her hands unable to speak.

"Hey," I began. "You want me to take that handkerchief? I'll bring you another one."

"Yes Ben, thank you." The mother answered weakly while handing me the tissue.

"No problem."

I walked off lazily with the hanky in my hands, but didn't get far. As soon as Bubbles realized what had happened, she jumped from her seat, and attacked me from behind with her arms squeezing my side.

"Ok, ok, I get it. I love you, too! Thanks, that's enough…enough!" I chocked.

"Oh my goodness! Where have you been? Where did you go? Where are the others? Oh, I'm so glad you're safe!"

"Hi, Mom!" Brooke greeted with Lindy by her side. Courage hopped in beside them, and Muriel gasped with pleasure. Bruno and Birch entered in beside them.

"Oh, my darlings!" Aunt Bubbles exclaimed. "You're ok, oh, I knew you would be. I'm so happy you're all safe."

Yeah, as you can imagine, my Aunt called back all the adults and told them about our return. They happened to be out looking for us, what do yah know?

Well, Beth was pretty mad when she saw me…and so was Bari, but the boys seemed pretty excited. Once my parents returned, everything got a little hectic.

I was grounded for two weeks…not as bad as I expected, and Brooke actually didn't get punished…lucky. The next day, we planned on leaving.

"Are the cars working, Butch?" Buttercup shouted from the front porch.

"Yeah, they're done enough. At least enough to get us to the next hardware shop."

"Good, I'll pack up the kids."

I have to admit, even though I didn't quite like the Kansas plains, it was kind of sad leaving. We said thank you and good bye to the Bagge family, and jumped in our cars for departure.

"So what was it like, being a superhero 'n all?" Brett asked as we walked out to the porch.

"It was pretty cool," I answered. "Except I bet it's a lot less strenuous with your powers."

"True."

Everyone waved good bye from the cars and later we drove off.

"Good bye! See yah. Bye! Talk to yah later! Bye. Farewell! Bye. Good bye! Catch yah later!" Beau called.

"Hey Beau, it's cool. I think they'll miss you too," I spoke up, while stretching my legs across the back seat.

"Ben! Quit it! I don't wanna have your feet stuck in my face the whole trip back!" Bari complained.

"We're really not gonna start this up again, are we?" My mother asked, already in impatience.

"Hopefully not," I replied, while pushing my feet on the ground.

As I peered out the window, I saw Courage waving good bye, with Skye nudging up affectionately at his shoulder.

Courage blushed happily, and shrugged, as he snuggled up next to Skye.

"What can I say? Ahuhuhuh!" He laughed cheerfully.

The End

**Hurray! You made it through my first fanfiction! Congratulations! I honestly can't believe you survived this far. I have very high respects for you, fanfiction writer. Well, that's the end! Reviews would be very much appreciated, and once again, I hope you can read some of the R. Sister's one shots. They're really amazing! **

**-L. Sister **


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